Buzzards Bay shellfish beds stay closed six days after Nov. 7 rain and sewer overflows

SOUTH COAST Every shellfish growing area in Buzzards Bay remains closed to digging and harvest after the state shut them for heavy rain and sewer overflows on Saturday, Nov. 7, and none had reopened by Friday.

The state Division of Marine Fisheries closed growing areas BB1 to BB58 at 10 a.m. that day, citing "heavy rainfall and flooding related to the storm event on November 6 and 7, 2026," according to the notice it sent to Westport, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fairhaven, Marion, Mattapoisett, Wareham, Bourne and 10 towns on Cape Cod and the Elizabeth Islands. Those numbers are the full set the division lists for Buzzards Bay, and when we checked the division's list of closure and opening notices early Friday, Nov. 13, it showed no reopening for any Buzzards Bay area.

The closure applies to anyone digging in the bay, whatever permit they hold, because the notices bar the act of digging itself as well as possession of the catch.

What the notices bar

Under the rain notice, the waters, flats and all tributaries of the listed areas are "Closed to Shellfishing" for all bivalve shellfish, except bay scallops harvested for the adductor muscle only. "Digging, harvesting or collecting and/or attempting to dig, harvest or collect shellfish, and the possession of shellfish from the below areas is prohibited until further notice," the notice reads, and state permits issued under 322 CMR 7.01 are conditioned to bar the taking, selling or possession of shellfish from those areas.

A second notice, effective two hours earlier at 8 a.m. Nov. 7, closed 22 areas off Westport, Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fairhaven, Mattapoisett and Marion, along with Falmouth and Gosnold, "due to combined sewer overflow (CSO) discharges associated with heavy rainfall on November 6-7, 2026," with the same scallop exception, so those areas sit under both closures.

Neither notice names a biotoxin such as red tide, and each says its areas stay closed "until examined by the Division and notification is made that the areas have been placed in the open status." Both are signed by Daniel J. McKiernan, the division's director, and the rain notice is copied to the shellfish constable in each of its towns.

What Wareham posted

Wareham put the closure on its town website at 11:04 a.m. Nov. 7, and the banner was still up Friday morning. "Division of Marine Fisheries has closed all Shellfishing in the Town until further notice. Testing will take place this upcoming week," the town's alert reads.

A long run of closures

Rain and sewer overflows have shut parts of the bay many times this year. By our count of the titles on the division's notice list, 14 notices in 2026 have closed Buzzards Bay areas because of combined sewer overflows, from BB11 and BB12 in January to the Nov. 7 closure, among them a Sept. 28 closure of BB1 to BB32 that followed a statewide closure for a coastal storm on Sept. 25. The division then reopened the bay in pieces through October, and on Monday, Nov. 2, it partly lifted the Oct. 12 sewer overflow closure off Dartmouth, New Bedford, Fairhaven and Mattapoisett, five days before the new closures.

On Thursday, Nov. 12, the division issued partial reopening notices after the same storm for Plymouth South Coastal (CCB39) and for Barnstable South Coastal, Cotuit Bay and West Bay (SC18, SC21 and SC22), which it lists under Cape Cod Bay and South Cape Cod, so none of them is in Buzzards Bay.

What happens next

The notices set no reopening date, so SC360 has asked the Division of Marine Fisheries by email when it expects to sample the Buzzards Bay areas and which, if any, will reopen first, and we will add the answer to this story.

The division posts every closure and reopening on its Emergency Shellfish Closure and Opening Notices page on mass.gov and offers a sign-up for its advisory updates. Harvesters can reach the division at 617-626-1520 or marine.fish@mass.gov, or call their town's shellfish constable before heading out.

Label: Reported by us, from the town's posted records.