Oyster Hatchery
by Nicole Cruz
On Friday right before we went kayaking we were fortunate enough to visit an oyster hatchery in North Sea. It was there we learned more about what an oyster hatchery was and how it works
This was where we started our “surprise activity” of the day and where each of us obtained a new slogan, “don’t waste a crisis”. It was here that we learned where the Oyster hatchery did most of their work and how vital the hatchery is. We also learned the percentage of graduating classes in NY, but that’s beside the point. Josh told us about the shellfish population all around range of Long Island, and what each zone symbolized. He also showed how he grew and contained algae (have to keep it pretty toasty). It was here that we actually saw how little the shellfish population was (so much red!) and what they were doing to restore it. We also learned many professors at Stony Brook Southampton were apart of helping the hatchery, as it was said, it is a community project.
After we learned about what the oyster hatchery was and why it was established we got to see how it actually worked. Here two of my classmates helped Josh bring up a barrel containing oysters to show what is going on inside of the barrel.
These are just more photos of the upwelling system (FLUPSY) and the pipelines that Josh was telling us about. To be honest this all seems very complicated but also pretty cool!
Under each barrel is a mesh that holds the oysters in place, this allows the population to flourish and this hatchery seems to be doing a pretty great job. There’s many opportunities to intern and learn more about what they do, I suggest learning more about it. We didn’t get much, everyone was excited about kayaking, so I’ll let my classmates tell you about that!
Kayaking Trip
by Jenna Pitta
Today on our field trip we went off to the North Sea Harbor. Here we got in our kayaks from Captain Kayak and started to explore. The winds were strong and the tide was pulling us around but to say the least it is definitely and experience. We started off paddling past a double masted sail boat heading towards Fish Cove. We paddled underneath Noyack Road into the dead end of Fish Cove. This was where we learned about the Alewife runs. From here we paddled across the North Sea Harbor again and we headed back towards the double masted sail boat. We met up at Conscience Point for a brief break before paddling to a cove on the Conscience Point National Wildlife Refuge. Here we stayed for a while and spoke about the National Wildlife Refuge. After we were done here we paddled against the wind and tide to paddle back to our starting point to call it night.
The Alewife fish has a run that goes through the North Sea Harbor. These fish will come from the Peconic Bay through the North Sea Harbor. From here they make their way to the Alewife Drain which leads to Big Fresh Pond. Big Fresh Pond is a fresh water pond that is fed by the surrounding water sheds. This fresh water pond provides a safe spawning area for the Alewives. The juveniles will eventually leave Big Fresh Pond and make their way back through Alewife Drain to the North Sea Harbor and back out to the Peconic Bay. This is an important run for the Alewives to be able to reproduce. There is also another major Alewife run that goes up the Peconic River. In the Peconic River there are more obstacles such as dams to prevent the fish from moving into more fresh water. To combat this issue, fish ladders were built on multiple dams to let the fish continue their run to be able to reproduce and repopulate the Alewife population. The fish ladder is more of a gradual slope that the fish are able to swim and jump through to reach their spawning area.
Conscience point is a key historical point here in the Southampton area. This is the point that on June 12th, 1640 a small group of English Puritans from Lynn, Massachusetts landed. Southampton is the oldest English’s settlement in the state of New York. This was the place where the settlers came ashore and the one woman on board the vessel came off the boat and said “For conscience sake, we are on dry land once more.” It was such a rough voyage from just north of Boston that the woman was so grateful to be dry land again. The story is told that she was so happy to be on dry land again that she did not want to go on anymore forcing the men to settle Southampton. This is supposedly how the town of Southampton came to be. Because of this woman settlement was started which eventually turned into a major English settlement on the east end of Long Island.
Kayak Trip
by John Carswell
Towards the end of our kayak adventure around North Sea Harbor, we paddled our way across the bay into a shallow muddy series of creaks surrounded by beautiful salt marshes. There were giant clouds in the sky with strong winds foreshadowing the storms we would receive later in the day. The sun was starting to set, making the giant clouds all different sorts of colors. We ended up in a small circular bay. I saw a crab scurry underneath my kayak after something, and then disappear back into the mud. As we waited for some stragglers, who were still fighting the current to get into the small bay, many of us were washed into the smelly black mud on the sides of the salt marsh by the winds. After some struggling, we all made our way out of the mud back towards Kurt.
Kurt pointed out a small sign in the marsh. The sign meant that this area was a protected area, and was part of the Conscious Point National Wildlife Refuge. Because it is a protected area, permits are needed to do many things in it, like studies, research or fishing. Protected areas can be owned by the federal government, like Fire Island, which is a national park, or they can be owned by the state, like Montauk Point. Protect areas can also be owned by the county, like many salt marshes on shelter island, or they can be owned by villages. Private people or organizations can also have protected areas. The Nature Conservancy is a group that has a lot of protected area on Long Island. These protected areas are very important to everyone for many reasons, they all provide ecosystem services. The Pine Barrens in central Suffolk County provide a large area of wilderness where no development is allowed. This helps protect our aquafer on Long Island, which we all need for clean drinking water. Areas like Conscious Point provide areas for shellfish to grow and spawn, which in turn can help filter the water. It also provides important protected nursery areas for many fish species, like the alewife. Last but not least, these protected areas are beautiful, which can drive tourism in many towns. After Kurt explained to us about the different types of protected areas, we all were given candy to give us the strength we would need for our long trip back to the shore where the van was. Against the wind and the current, we all trucked back to shore, taking in the beauty of the giant storm clouds over the swaying salt marsh.
