The Nature Conservancy visits Whatever Floats Yer Boat this morning! Chris Clapp will update us on the health of the Great South Bay and current TNC initiatives.

Contact Chris:
cclapp@tnc.org

Trusted and valued volunteers,

I have a couple of things to report on.

Clear water

Those who spend time on the water may have noticed that the water has
been uncharacteristically clear in Great South Bay most of the year.
During the shellfish survey we found a large set of "duck clams", or
Mullinia lateralis, throughout the entire bay. These are very small
clams that are baely captured on the survey screens and are known to
have populations that fluctuate wildly. This seems to be a boom year for
them as we have calculated that there are approximately ten to twenty
thousand individuals for every square meter of bay bottom,
conservatively speaking.

This represents an enormous filtration capacity and shows just how
important it is to have robust populations of filter feeders in our
estuaries.

Red water

Boaters and ferry goers might have also noticed patchy streaks of red
water between Nicoll and Patchogue Bays. We had a red tide bloom of the
form that is not toxic to humans but does interrupt fish and shellfish
if the exposure is long enough. We will be keeping a close eye on this
as well. This algae has been blooming repeatedly in Peconic and
Shinnecock bays for a number of years but it is the first time we have
seen it in Great South Bay.

Clam Stocking

We will be stocking clams again this fall into spawner sanctuaries on in
GSB. Anyone interested should contact myself or Adam Starke
astarke@tnc.org.

Run For Nature

While there are many who would like to help out the Nature Conservancy
anyway they can but don't have the time to do so here is another way. I
am running the NYC Marathon this fall as a fundraiser for TNC. I have
been training pretty ahrd and hope to finish with a respectable time.
Please help me by clicking on the link below and checking out my page
and maybe make a donation. If you can't swing it, which I totally
understand, but know someone who can please send this link on. Email me
with any questions. Don't trust the internet. Mail a check made out to
"The Nature Conservancy" to the address below.

http://www.crowdrise.com/natureconservancynyc/fundraiser/ChrisClapp

Thank you all for your support,

Chris