Great South Bay Oyster Project

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Habitat Restoration

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Habitat Restoration

Oysters eat murky water for lunch. If we bring them back in volume, they’ll clean the bay better and faster than any human can.

We advocate for healing the creeks that feed our bay, for bay-friendly yards, for helping to return a shellfishing industry to the Great South Bay, and for the deployment of modern wastewater treatment technologies to address the problems caused by 500,000 cesspools and septic tanks, as well as the 197 large scale septic systems in malls, apartment complexes and locally.

Volunteer 

Lend a hand! Join our Oyster Project Team and help revive The Great South Bay.

Partnering With Oyster Growers

Save The Great South Bay works closely with oyster growers on The South Shore. We seek to implement new techniques for the reintroduction of oysters such as we see being undertaken in The Chesapeake, or through New York City’s Billion Oyster Project, or closer to home, with Friends of Bellport Bay. Given the value of oysters today, there is also a lot of innovation around how best to grow them.

Of course, nothing happens without cleaner water. That is why getting rid of our cesspools and septic tanks, healing our creeks, tackling runoff, and practicing natural lawn care is so important.

Please contact us with any suggestions you may have. You can also donate our efforts. We want to apply the latest techniques in aquaculture to revitalize our bay, our economy and our local culture.

We advocate for healing the creeks that feed our bay, for bay-friendly yards, for helping to return a shell fishing industry to the Great South Bay, and for the deployment of modern wastewater treatment technologies to address the problems caused by 500,000 cesspools and septic tanks, as well as the 197 large scale septic systems in malls, apartment complexes and locally.

Where You Can Get Fresh, Long Island Blue Point Oysters

The Making Of An Oyster Sanctuary

Part One Of Three
Site Evaluation
Part Two Of Three
Establishing the Sanctuary
Part Three Of Three
Enhancing and Measuring for Success
Recent planting in the Great South Bay Oyster Sanctuary 07/2023

Recent Progress On Habitat Restoration

Here’s what we’ve recently been up to. Your participation could look like one of these updates, or – if you can’t dive in there and get dirty yourself, just support the project and we’ll find a way to do it. Everyone has a part in this shared cause.

Long Island’s Drinking Water: Threats and Solutions

The Long Island Clean Water Coalition, formed by a group of some twenty eco-non-profits and environmental research institutions large and small have come together to to address the water quality crisis now facing Long Island. Our groundwater is polluted, and therefore our drinking water is at peril. Because our ground water is polluted, so are our lakes, streams and bays. Algal blooms wiping out habitats in our bays, shellfish beds closed because of all the nitrogenous waste now in our water. This presentation is by Adrienne Esposito of The Citizen’s Campaign for The Environment. It powerfully presents the problem we as Long Islanders face, and what we can do to bring Long Island back from the brink of disaster.

The Breach Report 6-26-13 (Updated).   Giant Loggerhead Sea Turtles at The New Inlet, Robert Moses, Moriches, Nicholl Bay, and Maybe Shinnecock

The Breach Report 6-26-13 (Updated). Giant Loggerhead Sea Turtles at The New Inlet, Robert Moses, Moriches, Nicholl Bay, and Maybe Shinnecock

All of a sudden, it seems like we are seeing loggerhead turtles not only in The Great South Bay, but in several other places in the GSB and elsewhere. The ones in The Great South Bay were at The New Inlet (see below) and at Robert Moses, as previously noted, and as well in Nicholl Bay, where, sadly, one was found dead. Since the initial story went live, we’ve been getting further reports from CRESLI.org (The Coastal Research And Education Society of Long Island) that there’s a loggerhead in Moriches; we hear as well from one of our readers that they’ve seen an enormous turtle near The Shinnecock Inlet. Loggerhead? It would seem so.

New York Seagrant Weighs In On The Breach and The Crippling of The Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant — Both Caused By Hurricane Sandy

New York Seagrant Weighs In On The Breach and The Crippling of The Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant — Both Caused By Hurricane Sandy

Seagrant ( a lot more on them below, from their site), offers an overview of the two most important topics affecting The Great South Bay and the Western Bays — The Breach / New Inlet, and The Crippling of The Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant By Hurricane Sandy. Here is a national marine science non-profit with a strong local presence offering their views on both these issues as part of a Post Sandy assessment of marine conditions post Sandy and what our policy should be regarding them. One’s a story of dirty water being flushed out (The Breach), the other a story of dirty water pouring in (The crippled Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant). In both cases, it is crucial that as we rebuild we make wise, informed choices. As the Breach / New Inlet is flushing the Eastern Great South Bay while revitalizing it and lowering the brown algae count to perhaps 1/100th of what we are seeing in Moriches and Shinnecock Bay, we need to keep The New Inlet open — or to put it another way, prevent it from being closed through political pressure.

The Breach Report 6-17:   Michael Busch of Greatsouthbayimages.com Videos and Photographs The Dismantling of the Pattersquash Gunners Association Club House, Videos the Cleaner Water in Bellport Bay From New Inlet

The Breach Report 6-17: Michael Busch of Greatsouthbayimages.com Videos and Photographs The Dismantling of the Pattersquash Gunners Association Club House, Videos the Cleaner Water in Bellport Bay From New Inlet

Michael certainly had a busy weekend. He has for us and today’s breach report a video and a slide show of the dismantling of the Pattersquash Gunner’s Association Club House, which rested on Pelican Island until Sandy and The New Inlet washed her off the island and into Bellport Bay. He also brought his camera down in 4 feet of water to document the clearer, cleaner water that The New Inlet is bringing to Bellport Bay and the Eastern Great South Bay.

Since Sandy, Michael has been steadily chr0ncling what The New Inlet has brought to the eastern Great South Bay – the osprey, the seals, fish of all kinds. We have devoted a whole page to him on this site. He in turn has launched Great South Bay Images. By going through his archives you will see how The New Inlet has evolved, and the changes it has brought. You will also experience the sheer beauty of this rare natural event – a barrier beach and a bay revitalizing through the creation of a new inlet — and of our Great South Bay itself and its wildlife.

Here then is a slide show of the club’s dismantling and removal:

A Friend of Save the Great South Bay

A Friend of Save the Great South Bay

Big things like saving the Great South Bay don't happen by chance and they are not free. It takes time, money and effort to make a difference. So I thought I'd relate this story. Some months ago, Lori Stuck agreed to let her Islip store: (Lori's Nook and Cranny, 469...

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