Fisheries Habitat Investigations
Pleasant Bay is a coastal lagoon system featuring diverse habitats and separated from the North Atlantic Ocean by a barrier beach. Surrounded by 70 km of coastline, its watershed includes the towns of Orleans, Chatham, Harwich and Brewster. From 2014-2017, CCS scientists conducted an inventory of shellfish and finfish in the Bay, with a focus on commercially and recreationally important species. This comprehensive inventory indicated that Pleasant Bay is home to a diverse assemblage of marine animals, many of which utilize the Bay as spawning or nursery habitat.
This research is supported by the Friends of Pleasant Bay and has set the stage for long-term monitoring to detect changes in the system, as well as focused studies on specific ecosystem indicators, such as the presence of tropical fish via a collaboration with the Gulf Stream Orphan Project.
This project was part of a larger interdisciplinary, multi-scale ecosystem assessment of Pleasant Bay. CLICK HERE for more information about the project and to download the Technical Report.
Further north along Cape Cod, CCS scientists and their colleagues at the National Park Service (NPS) and Antioch University have begun a study of the shellfish community in the East Harbor lagoon, a tidal restoration site in the Cape Cod National Seashore. Of particular interest is the role of East Harbor’s shellfish populations as a supply of planktonic larvae to adjacent waters where they are harvested.
Our Work
Humpback Whale Research
Right Whale Research
Marine Animal Entanglement Response
Marine Geology Department
Water Quality Monitoring Program
Marine Fisheries Research
Seal Research
Shark Research
Marine Education
Interdisciplinary
Marine Debris and Plastics Program
Marine Policy Initiative
Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative
Publications