Sayville
by Elaine Alberts
The field trip to Sayville was one of my favorite field trips to date. Generally, field trips start at 9AM, but today everyone got to sleep in until 2PM. We toured a couple of sights at the Sayville Maritime Museum, including an old cottage, and a warehouse filled with boats from different time periods on Long Island. Near the end of the field trip we sat down on the edge of the dock to talk about some of the environmental projects in Great South Bay. Sayville is much farther west on Long Island than the Stony Brook Southampton campus. If we stood up on the dock, we could actually see the Fire Island Lighthouse which we toured 2 weeks ago. As we all sat down on the dock, we learned about some of the environmental issues facing Great South Bay. The bays on Long Island are relatively sensitive ecosystems. Many of our bays are not flushed out by the ocean frequently. Without proper filtration, the water quality in the bays decreases. In the past, the populations of oysters and clams were extremely high, and able to filter all the water in the bays. Oysters and clams are filter feeders, meaning that they specialized filtering structure that allows them to strain particles and small organisms out of the water. Unfortunately, in 1938 the Long Island express hurricane decimated the oyster beds with approximately 12 feet of over wash. This took out the substrate essential for oyster populations, and almost 80 years later the oysters have not recovered.
In New York City, and here on Long Island there are several ongoing projects to help restore the shellfish populations to the bays, and in turn improve these ecosystems. In New York City, there is the Billion Oyster Project. Their goal is to improve the water quality of New York harbor. There are a variety of factors that damage the productivity of a body of water. In NY harbor the major shipping lane is a source of a huge volume of fuel and exhaust. It is also important to note that the sewage of the city causes a huge increase in nutrients in the water. The final factor is the watershed that drains into the New York harbor. Fertilizers and heavy metals from Upstate NY drain down into the harbor and increase the level of nutrients. Although a high level of nutrients sounds good in theory, it can actually severely damage an ecosystem. The high level of nutrients can result in an algal bloom, this can result in massive fish kills and decreases water quality. The Billion Oyster Project is using shellfish to combat these algal blooms, and increase the water quality in New York harbor. As we looked out over Great South Bay, we talked about projects here on Long Island. In Southampton, we have the Shinnecock Bay Restoration Program (ShiRP). I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with ShiRP during the semester. Our goal is similar to the Billion Oyster Project in NYC. In the long run, we would like to create a positive feedback loop, that helps partially restore the bays’ ecosystems. When I am working on the project, I usually help with clam deployments. When these filter feeders begin to improve the water quality, native plants like eelgrass will re-establish in the bay and create more habitat for other species to return as well.
In Sayville, they are on the forefront of protecting their bays. A local high school began the movement to outlaw pesticides. Now legislation is backing their cause. One of the reasons I love Long Island (honestly how often do you hear people say that?!?) is because environmental issues are taken very seriously here. I have met everyone from fishermen to policy makers, and collectively they have a higher level of environmental awareness than anywhere else I’ve ever been. After finishing our mini lecture on the dock, we jumped off the dock and tip-toed over beds of Spartina patens to the edge of Great South Bay. I stopped to take a couple pictures of the water and reflect on the restoration projects we had just discussed. It was just before golden hour, and Great South Bay looked beautiful and peaceful.
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| Great South Bay : Image of Great South Bay after our lecture on the dock |
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| Shoreline of Great South Bay: My friends walking along the wrack line of Great South Bay after out lecture. |
Origins of Sanitation in Sayville
by Antonio Fanizzi
This weeks trip took us to the Sayville Maritime museum to watch the spectacular boat burning. Once we got there, we still had several hours before the fire would start, so me visited several historical buildings on the site, including a small cottage that belonged to the original owner of the property. The interior of this house was considered public area and public area was expected to be very ornate among the wealthy. Nearly every inch of the structure of the cabin was made from fine wood which was considered a good indicate of the wealthy. The cottage had very high ceilings considering the time period that it was built in. Back then it was very expensive to keep homes heated so ceilings were often low to provide less room for heat to spread, it was not because the average height was shorter at the time. The designers of this house clearly did not mind having to throw in extra money to provide multiple heaters to keep the house warm. The most prominent feature of the house was the grand, self-playing, wind up piano located in the parlor, another indicate of a wealthy manor.
At this cottage is where we also learned about the history of New York sanitation. In the mid-nineteenth century, New York took in immigrants from Italy, Germany, and Ireland. Most of these people came from farmlands where it is custom to simply throw your garbage out of your window. It became so bad that people had to carry umbrellas when walking under window openings out of fear of getting hit. Some say that this is where the common phrase “look out below” originated from. Clothing was also redesigned just for walking through filth, as women started wearing heels and men wore wooden clogs to protect their feet. Even women’s dresses and men’s pants started to get shorter. Another big problem with filth came from the rise of horse drawn carriages. A healthy adult horse can produce over thirty ponds of feces and two gallons of urine each day. This is why horses on the streets of New York today are required to wear special feces catchers. People were so desperate for an easy clean up that they began to release pigs onto the streets of New York City. Pigs are considered extremely easy to take care of because they will eat absolutely anything, even bacon or horse feces. This would have been a great idea if it weren’t for the fact that these pigs could grow to over eighteen hundred pounds. They began attacking people in attempt to steal their food, and would even tip over trolleys and break down doors in search of their next meal. By 1880, it was made illegal to own a pig in New York City and it is still illegal today. The problem was finally addressed properly in 1895 when the sanitation department was created. People were able to make their living just by picking up garbage and feces off of the streets. This organization still exists today and likely will as long as the city streets stay cluttered.
“On the Half-Shell”
by Finn Morrissey
The claim to fame that Long Island holds most dear, besides the highest concentration of road rage, was the vast commercial shell fishing market. Even before the European invasion, Native Americans harvested hard shell and soft shell clams as well as taping into the oyster beds that spanned the salt waterways such as Great South Bay. After Europeans arrived, the early settlers used shellfish to survive as they were an easily accessible, abundant source of protean. As the years passed the harvest of shellfish, especially oysters turned from a survival based gathering to a commercial enterprise. The increase in technology from rakes to dredges massively increased the production of the famous Blue Point Oysters from the Great South Bay. In the 1930’s two separate events led to the disappearance of the fabled oyster populations of the past. Oyster larvae need a hard substrate to settle out on in order to successfully mature into adults. Oyster beds are made up of living and dead oysters growing layer upon layer. The adults signal to the larvae that they can settle before they do. The use of the oyster dredge sucked up live oysters and the beds themselves leading to less and less substrate for larvae to grow on leading to years of poor recruitment. In 1938 the Long Island Express hurricane rolled through and completely changed the water quality of the local bays including the Great South Bay. The hurricane opened up a new inlet into Great South Bay changing the hydrology which effected variables such as salinity and temperature. Also, the storm surge buried many of the oyster beds in sediment leaving little substrate for the oyster larvae.
The oyster rake, up until modern technology took over, was a baymens best tool to harvest oysters at moderate depths. The basic rake was similar to barbecue tongs, where two curved tooth rake heads were hinged together and attached to a long wooden handle. Baymen would take this rake and drift over piles of oysters scooping up as many as the basket could hold then doing another drift. This was common practice, and good honest work for Long Islanders to make a living. You can see an example of a rake below the article in figure one. As technology was made better, the ability to harvest oysters in more efficient ways became a more lucrative enterprise. The oyster dredge became the best way to commercially procure oysters. An oyster dredge, in laymen’s terms, is a beam trawl that digs into the bottom collecting its contents. A metal frame with teeth at the bottom sends a net to the sea floor. As the dredge is pulled the teeth force the frame into the sediment and oyster are scooped up and filtered out by the net. A common dredge can be seen below in figure two. Oyster from the Great South Bay harvested by rake and dredge were a delicacy all over the world especially with the invention of ice boxes and artificial refrigeration. The Blue Pont Oyster was so highly regarded that New Jersey baymen steamed over to the Great South Bay, just to steal the oysters. Also people were coming with their pre-harvested oyster and dipping them in the bay to then claim they were Blue Points. This led to the rule that Blue Point oysters were ones that spent at least three months in the Great South Bay. That is Long Islands legacy and no one else’s, so the next time you see official, recognized, Blue Point oysters on the menu, just say; I’ll take ‘em on the half shell.”
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| Figure 1. Oyster rake |
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Figure 2. Oyster dredge
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The Vessels of the Long Island Maritime Museum
by Kaitlyn Fenster
While I have enjoyed learning about the fishing practices and maritime traditions of eastern Long Island, I especially enjoyed this trip because I used to live in Sayville and have spent a lot of time around Great South Bay. I remember taking the ferry across to Fire Island and seeing the other boats passing by over many summers during my childhood. It was fascinating to learn about the vessels that used to sail across the same body of water that hold such significance in Long Island’s maritime history. In the boat warehouse, there were a variety of vessels of different sizes and functions. I really liked the design of the vessel “Two Brothers” and its abundance of ropes and mechanisms. “Two Brothers” was used as a training vessel for sailors; it is difficult to imagine being expected to know how to operate it with just 48 hours of training! Another interesting vessel I noticed was “Eight Ball,” designed by Benjamin Hallock as one of the many vessels he built for the 1909-racing season. The warehouse also mentioned another shipbuilder, Gilbert Monroe Smith, who built more than 400 boats over his sixty-six years of working in the Patchogue River boatyard. Some of these boats were also known for their racing capabilities, and also had special features, such as its light displacement and large sail area that allowed it to sail quickly even in shallow waters.
Unlike the superbly crafted vessels we saw during class, there was one vessel in particular that was not quite as attractive but captured everyone’s attention. This was, of course, the boat that was chosen for Sayville’s annual boat burning event. The boat selected is usually damaged beyond repair and holds no value to the Long Island Maritime Museum’s collection of historic vessels. The Sayville boat burning has been a tradition of the museum’s since 1990 and has served as an important cultural event that connects Long Islanders with the maritime community. Watching the boat burning was an incredible experience; people stared in awe with similar expressions to those seen during a beautiful firework display. Though Sayville’s boat burning has not been an especially long practice, the act of having a bonfire around the time of harvest is an extremely old tradition, as the museum’s documents mentioned. I loved learning about the traditions of Long Island’s maritime community and being able to witness its cultural significance firsthand.
Sayville Boat Burning
by John McGee
Sayville, along with other communities along the Great South Bay, such as Bayport and Blue Point, have long relied on the natural resources of the bay in order to make a living. Shellfish, in particular, were the bread and butter of these settlements. Of these shellfish, oysters were the standout. In its heyday, oyster farming and harvesting was an international business. Oysters from Great South Bay were transported all over the world, and were enjoyed by common folk all the way to the likes of British Royalty. Great South Bay quickly became known for the quality of its oysters, and many were eager to get in on the business. Often, fishermen from New Jersey would come to Great South Bay and steal oysters, or simply dunk their oysters in the water and claim them as “Great South Bay” oysters. The local bayman obviously took issue with this, but found no help from the toleration officers or from the governor. Therefore, in the 1860’s, as the Civil War is taking place, local bayman attempted to secede from the United States as ‘The Republic of the Rockaways’. This quickly brought an end to the issue has the toleration officers and governor sought to prevent this from happening.
For many decades, the oyster industry and those involved was bountiful. Great South Bay proved to be the prime local for growing oysters due to the natural make up of the bay. On the eastern end. The salinity was low as there was little ocean water input. At this salinity, a main predator of seed oysters, the oyster drill, was unable to survive, leading to a high survivorship among seed oysters. Once they were of size, these oysters were than moved to the more saline, western end of the bay that had a large amount of ocean water input. Here, the oysters grew fat and plump until they reached market size. However, this natural blessing came to an end in 1938 at the hands of the Long Island Express. This famed hurricane opened many inlets on the eastern end of the way, and thus the salinity increased. With this came the oyster drill and less survivorship among seed oysters. The hurricane also buried many established oyster beds with sediment, and so larvae had no place to settle out on! In addition, many duck farms were situated along the edges of the bay. These farms introduced excess waste and nutrients into the bay, leading to blooms of a weedy alga that smothered seed oysters. As oyster production fell off, many bayman adapted by beginning to harvest hard clams. Until then was seen as a form of supplemental summer income.
