Little Harbor Beach is closed until further notice as of Aug. 12. 

The Board of Health indicated that weekly water sampling for bacteria “did not meet minimum requirements” that would allow safe swimming. 

Patrick MacDonald, the director of public health, said the Health Department tests salt and freshwater beaches in Wareham each week to monitor bacteria levels. When the water at Little Harbor Beach was tested, the raised bacteria levels — that MacDonald said can be influenced by any number of factors including rainfall or the presence of more warm-blooded animals than usual — sent the beach into a status called “geomean failure,” which means the average bacteria count over five test averages was too high to keep the beach open.

The high bacteria levels mean that swimming could cause illness, MacDonald said, because “you would be consuming water with a high bacteria count.”

“It can also be irritating to skin, open wounds — you can get infections,” he said.

MacDonald said that he has continued to re-sample the water in the hopes of reopening the beach soon, but noted that there’s no way to tell when bacteria levels will decrease.

“The bacteria count in this particular situation is entirely out of our hands,” he said. “I have no way to gauge whether or not the beach is going to have a good result.”

When the beach reopens, it will be indicated on the Board of Health’s Facebook page and on the Town website. The sign at the beach will also be removed.