News & Events

The water continues to warm up, which means summer is just around the corner. Water temperatures are just beginning to be warm enough for the pumpkinseed sunfish of Cape Cod to begin getting active.

Recently, we asked you to take action on behalf of the Cape’s unique and fragile environment by writing to your legislators regarding problematic language in the Senate’s otherwise good “Mass Ready Act” (S. 3064) that threatens local wetland protections and wastewater management requirements.

This past week brought a beautiful encounter for one of our pond teams. APCC Pond Technician May Lopopolo came across this Eastern tiger swallowtail at Gull Pond in Wellfleet while preparing to paddle out in the canoe to collect water quality data.

This spring, herring are once again running strong at the Stony Brook Herring Run. Thanks to the dedication of more than 50 volunteer monitors, more than 20,000 cumulative herring have already been counted migrating upstream into Mill Pond to spawn.

Cape Cod’s coastal systems are always telling us something. A stream running lower than expected. River herring arriving later than in years past. Fish holding below a barrier instead of moving upstream. A shell worn smooth by time, tide, and sand. A familiar pattern shifting just enough to make me stop and look again.

Across Cape Cod, this year’s river herring migration is showing encouraging momentum. The run started earlier and stronger than last year, and observations from multiple monitored runs suggest that 2026 is continuing to outpace 2025 at this point in the season.