Page Two of The Watershed, Vol. 9, No. 2, Summer 2005

2004/2005 Officers and Directors
Robert King, President

Eric Davidson, Vice President
Bill Kerfoot, Clerk
Barry Norris, Treasurer
Consultant
Wendi Buessler

Directors
Carl Breivogel
Jonathan Davis
John Dowling
Susan Gagosian
Dana Rodin
Arthur Silverstein
Peter Valtin
Lou Turner
Martin White
Honorary Boardmember
Robert Livingstone

OPET Board meetings are open to all OPET members. Meetings are usually held on the third Sunday of the month, at 4 pm, in the Treetops Clubhouse.
We'd love to have you come!

OPET does not have an official phone, but you can leave a message at 508-540-7345. We'll gladly get back to you!
Or email Email OPET or Wendi Buesseler. And do visit our website, www.opet.org.

BUMP Research Projects

Since 2001, students in the Boston University Marine Program (BUMP) have conducted studies of Oyster Pond. Here are the titles of papers from last fall's session. The full text can be seen at our web site www.opet.org.
Salinity, dissolved oxygen, and nutrient
concentrations in Oyster Pond
Karen Bishop and Michael Perret
Oyster Pond (OP), a regulated-tidal pond in Falmouth, MA, is a valuable model, and ongoing testament to how human manipulation will distort the natural composition of flora and fauna in delicately balanced estuarine waters. Oyster Pond: Concentrations, effects
and sources of groundwater nutrients
Carrie Soltanoff, Lukas Cheney & Megan Mach
We estimated inputs of the nutrients nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate to the six different sub-watershed of Oyster Pond.
Macrophytes and Eutrophication in Oyster Pond Jennifer Culbertson and Erin Kinney We chose to examine the macrophyte population in Oyster Pond as an indication of wastewater nitrogen load coming into the pond.

Effects of salinity and nutrient loading on species presence, growth, and food web position of fish in Oyster Pond and Salt Pond Christine Bibeau, Craig O'Connell and Amber D. York We compared fish populations within Oyster Pond and the saltier, higher nutrient loaded, Salt Pond.

Herring Update
Trunk River and Oyster Pond continue to be Falmouth's most important herring run. According to Chuck Martinson, Falmouth's herring warden, Trunk River had one of its best runs in recent years. In comparison to Falmouth's nine other runs, Trunk River is sustaining its population or even improving a little.

One late night fisherman reported Trunk River was so thick with herring he couldn't see the bottom. Another said he saw 10,000 herring pass by! Even with a fisherman's tendency for exaggeration -- that is still a lot of fish.

Chuck Martinson estimates this year's returning population at a more realistic 5,000 to 6,000. Chuck says that predators take their share of fish including a group of foxes he spotted one night catching herring from the sand bar in the lagoon.

Chuck thanks OPET volunteers for their help in keeping Trunk River open for fish passage. OPET's efforts contributes to the health of Oyster Pond's herring population.

FACES (Falmouth Associations Concerned with Estuaries and Saltponds) supports the efforts of OPET in raising the public's awareness of environmental issues associated with our coastal ponds. The coastal ponds are being stressed more each day as our ground water becomes saturated with nitrogen from septic systems, lawn fertilizer and road runoff. You are invited to the FACES Annual Meeting on August 4th at 7:30 at the Woods Hole Research Center, 149 Woods Hole Road. Our guest speaker, Dr. Ivan Valiela of the Boston University Marine Programs at the Marine Biological Laboratory, will address his extensive experience with the declining health of our coastal ponds and the challenges we face.
Brad Stumke, FACES Chair

OPET is a member of FACES

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This page updated August 1, 2005