According to New York State many organisms in Shinnecock Bay are listed as either threatened, endangered, special concern, or rare. The state has also classified estuaries, such as Shinnecock Bay, as “significant natural communities”( A natural ecological community is defined as an assemblage of interacting plant and animal populations that share a common environment). Stony Brook’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences with their Institute for Ocean Conservation Science has started a project to restore the area, called the Shinnecock Bay Restoration Project or (ShiRP). Currently, the project is working on rebuilding the populations of bivalves such as clams and oysters in hopes of reducing unwanted phytoplankton. These bivalves are a very important resource that have been depleted through over-fishing. Other resources that have been nearly depleted in recent years also include finfish and shellfish (from red tides) and eelgrass (from algal blooms). These organisms are important resources as they contribute to the health of the Bay environment.(www.shinnecockbay.org/program)
In Shinnecock bay there are also fertilizer and septic runoff. This pollution feeds algae that block the oxygen and sunlight to the organisms living in the bay. Also, the shell fishing there are killing off most of the clams, scallops and oysters. Along with the shellfish the eelgrass as well has disappeared from the Western part of the bay. Scientists also say climate change may have to do with it. Now, Shinnecock Bay Restoration Program is also helping to restore the water quality.
Local officers agreed to close parts of the bay to shell fishing and the program is covering the bottom of the bay with two million seed clams, 500,000 seed oysters and 150,000 adult clams to hopefully restore the waters.
Another challenge Shinnecock Bay is facing is the harmful algal blooms. These are a threat to public health and fisheries. In 1985, Brown Tides began to appear in result of the dense bloom of algae, and high concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus. Another thing that recently appeared in 2004 was the red tide. These toxic algae blooms are causing rapid mortality in multiple fish species and shellfish. If a person eats a contaminated fish they can get a condition known as paralytic shellfish poisoning. There has been a recent decline in sea grass, fish and shellfish populations due to the constant occurrences of red and brown tides.
Sources:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/opinion/clams-and-grass-to-the-rescue-of-shinnecock-bay.html?_r=0
2.http://www.shinnecockbay.org/multimedia/photos.html
3.http://www.shinnecockbay.org/program/current.html
Five specific steps that shiRP is going to take during its five year plan includes:
1. Improving the water quality by restocking species of shellfishes that Shinnecock Bay is deficient in in order to endow natural filtration in the ecosystem.
2. Expanding the eelgrass beds that’s shrinking now.
3. Removing harmful seaweeds that will stimulate harmful algae blooms of red tide and brown tide.
4. Restocking new stands of seaweeds to compensate for the removal, processing a robust monitoring plan to check for the effectiveness of the restoration act.
5. Gathering other key groups and citizen-scientists to be involved in the restoration program.
These objectives of the restoration program are now still in progress but over the summers of 2010, 2011, and 2012, shiRP had achieved some successes in gaining more in-depth information about the condition of Shinnecock Bay.
Source: http://shinnecockbay.org/program/objectives.html