BOSTON – Senators John Kerry today announced that the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (WBNERR) will receive $555,000 from the Department of Commerce. The funding will be used for operations and management, research, monitoring, education and resource protection programs for the Reserve. Results from the research and monitoring programs will be integrated into the area’s education programs and teacher trainings, coastal decision-maker workshops, and resource protection efforts.

“For 20 years the Waquoit Bay Reserve has served as a natural, living laboratory for scientists and has provided countless educational opportunities for students, teachers and the public,” said Senator Kerry. “The hard work done by their researchers greatly advances our understanding of the complexities of natural estuaries. This funding will help to deepen that understanding and will continue to protect nearly 3000 acres of land and water on the Upper Cape.”

Kerry and his senior colleague Senator Edward Kennedy were instrumental in pushing for the funding and both have long been supporters of the Reserve. 

The funding will also help to evaluate the feasibility of constructing a research dock, explore options to re-establish a Reserve advisory committee and will help the staff continue to take strategic steps to improve communication with other state agencies involved in coastal management.

The WBNERR was designated in 1988 and encompasses approximately 2,700 acres of open water, salt marsh salt ponds and adjacent uplands on the south shore of Cape Cod, in the towns of Falmouth and Mashpee. It provides long-term protection to the habitat and resources of this representative estuarine ecosystem, which serves as a natural laboratory for research by the Reserve and others that advances our understanding of natural estuarine and watershed-linked processes and human influences on them. 

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