Great South Bay Oyster Project

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Habitat Restoration

Oyster Project Logo - Great South Bay

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.
The Pine Barrens: How Trees Protect Our Water

The Pine Barrens: How Trees Protect Our Water

Save The Great South Bay warmly welcomes guest blogger, Katie Muether Brown, Deputy Director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society on how our Pine Barren trees help protect our waters. Colloquially, the piece of legislation that protected over 100,000 acres of Pine...

Hunt for the American Chestnut Challenge

Hunt for the American Chestnut Challenge

For thousands of years after the last glacial period, the American Chestnut, Castanea Dentata, dominated the eastern Deciduous Forests of the eastern United States, making up 25% to 30% of the forest canopy of Long Island’s hardwood forests. Growing over 100 to 120 ft...

Sprouts with Historic Roots

Sprouts with Historic Roots

Humble beginnings with Nikolaos Nantsis, James Bertsch, Stephen Borghardt, Rob Vasiluth, Marshall Brown, et al. These tiny sprouts are those of Long Island wild type American Chestnut growing in pots in my back yard. Thank you to Niko for finding them! More on this...

Looking Backward –And Ahead

2019 was a banner year for Save the Great South Bay. All that we had planned for 2020 is gone, so what do we do as an org, as neighbors, and citizens? What will emerge from all these profound changes? Let’s be “yardbound” and have an invasive and non-native free “Bay Friendly Yard” for you and your family.

Big Idea to Help Save Great South Bay

Big Idea to Help Save Great South Bay

Engineered Inlet with Storm Gate at Gilgo State Park    A sad fact is the Great South Bay is still very ill. New York State and Suffolk County is valiantly fighting the good fight to reduce nitrogen in our enriched heated bay. Removing the nitrogen, upgrading...

Repel The Invaders And Help Save The Great South Bay

As those familiar with this organization knows, we are dedicated to habitat restoration, whether along our creeks via The Creek Defender Program, or on our properties via our Bay Friendly Yards Program, or through our efforts to restore habitat itself as we work with...

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