Skip to content Skip to main navigation Skip to footer

Website Updates

Pumpout Services End for Season

With the predicted freezing temperatures tonight, staff have winterized the pumpout equipment. Pumpouts will resume in the spring of 2024.

Thank you for using the pumpout service this year and helping keep our waterways clean!

HM Office

Shellfish Reopened

The Department of Marine Fisheries has changed the status of shellfishing effective 9/17:

STATUS: OPEN TO THE TAKING OF SHELLFISH
Subject to conditional area management plan criteria where applicable

Dartmouth Shellfish

Hurricane Lee

...TROPICAL STORM CONDITIONS EXPECTED TO OCCUR THIS EVENING IN
SOUTHEASTERN NEW ENGLAND...

TROPICAL STORM WARNING ISSUED FOR CAPE COD, MARTHA’S VINEYARD AND NANTUCKET…DANGEROUS SURF AND RIP CURRENT CONDITIONS AFFECTING MUCH OF THE EAST COAST OF THE US

A Tropical Storm Warning has been issued for the coast of
Massachusetts from Woods Hole to Hull, including Cape Cod,
Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket.

A Tropical Storm Warning means that tropical storm conditions are
expected somewhere within the warning area within 36 hours.

A few points to assist with your decisions in the coming days:

  • The Harbormaster Office has no additional information on the storm’s path. We rely on the National Hurricane Center as the best reliable source of possible paths and intensity predictions
  • We do not have moorings, ‘Hurricane moorings’ or ‘storm moorings’ available on either side of the bridge.
  • It is always the safest course of action to haul your boat well in advance of any predicted storm. It is unlikely to be safe or possible to haul if you wait until the last minute.
  • Operation of the Padanaram Bridge is on the same schedule until 10/31 by the Department of Public Works.
  • Please check mooring lines, add chafe protection near wear points, remove all sails, canvas and items stored on deck. Anything that cannot be easily removed, should be lashed down and secured.
  • Your boat is likely made of plastic, metal and wood. It can be repaired or replaced more easily than your life or limbs. Please use extraordinary care and safety in preparing well in advance of the storm. We don’t need you to put your life, or ours, in jeopardy in the face of any weather. At some practical point, rescue equipment, vessels and personnel will be removed from the hazardous waterfront environment and will not be available to rescue you or your property during any storm.

Summer Weekly Pumpout List Ending

This is the final week for the Summer weekly pump out list. We will continue to pump out weekly, as available, until we receive freeze warnings. Please provide as much advanced notice as possible as we will be receiving many requests as haul outs occur.
Thank you

Pumpout Boat Out for Service

The pump out boat was taken out for service today at Noon. The shore side station remains available for use. The boat should be back in service before Saturday after maintenance has been completed. Thanks

Road Construction

The Town of Dartmouth has posted a Public Notice for Road Reconstruction and Paving in the Padanaram Village Area. Please see the Notice below.

2023 Waterways Decals

Waterways decals were mailed out mid-May to those who paid their Waterways Registration Fees. If you have not paid your fee, please do so ASAP. Staff will be looking for waterways decals and payments beginning 07/10/23. Any vessel found without proper payment will be assessed a mandatory 20% late fee.

2023 Boat Shrink Wrap Recycling

Dartmouth, MA – It protected your boat all winter, now it’s time to protect the environment.

Clean white boat wrap is accepted through this drop-off program at the Dartmouth Transfer Station.  Zippers and straps must be removed and discarded.  Spray painted wrap cannot be accepted.

“This boat wrap drop-off program enables this material to be collected in a designated container so that it can be recycled. Boat wrap cannot be placed in a curbside recycling cart. It would take up valuable space at the Crapo Hill landfill if discarded as garbage. We are working with the Waterways Commission and the Harbormaster to alert individual boaters of this win-win solution to the annual shrink wrap disposal problem and doing our best to keep it out of the waste stream,” said Tim Barber, Director of Public Works in the Town of Dartmouth.

Dartmouth residents may take boat wrap to the Dartmouth Transfer Station. A transfer station permit is required.  There is a container for boat wrap only. The Dartmouth Transfer Station is open Tuesday and Thursday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. Dartmouth residents who would like to obtain a transfer station permit, or a day pass, may call the Dartmouth DPW at (508) 999-0740.

Remember, boat wrap is only recyclable through drop-off programs. Plastic bags and plastic wraps do not belong in recycling carts. That type of material wraps around equipment at sorting facilities causing sorting to grind to a halt while people work through the challenging task of removing plastic bags and wrap.

Boat wrap can also be reused several times if it is installed and removed with reuse in mind. Look for reuse information online or ask your boat shrink wrap installer about it. For more information, contact the Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District by phone at (508) 979-1493 or by email at Marissa@gnbrrmdistrict.org. For additional tips, visit Dartmouth Recycling on Facebook.