Orleans Natural Resources Committee Hears Pleasant Bay Survey Update, Herring Run Design Progress

ORLEANS — May 21, 2026 — Orleans Natural Resources Advisory Committee hears Pleasant Bay survey pitch and herring run design update. Owen Nichols of the Center for Coastal Studies told the committee at its May 21 meeting that a Friends of Pleasant Bay-funded 18-month ecological survey is just getting underway and that he was seeking member input while the sampling framework can still be adjusted, noting the study will repeat work done in 2015-17 and revisit a 1965-66 State Division of Marine Fisheries baseline that found the highest lobster settlement per square meter in Massachusetts. Chair Derek Sears reported the Pilgrim Lake herring run improvement project is approaching 30 percent design — the trigger for permitting — with a current plan calling for eight precast concrete box steps replacing more than 20 existing steps, followed by precast wall sections within the existing town footprint, using a mini excavator entering from Pilgrim Lake. Sears also noted both Pleasant Bay and the Nauset river side remain closed for red tide, with three consecutive clean samples required before reopening, and that the Skakit Beach coastal resiliency plan presented to the Select Board on April 15 supports expanding the beach nourishment permit to allow beneficial reuse of Rock Harbor dredge spoils.