![]() A new approach was needed, one based on science and tailored to the specific nature of Shinnecock Bay. The Stony Brook scientists also knew that the task of hard clam restoration would not be easy, as more than 40 years of previous efforts had been largely unsuccessful. We knew that a key to recovering this ecosystem would be to re-establish the hard clam population in Shinnecock Bay.” ![]() When an estuary experiences a loss of filter-feeding bivalves, the ecosystem-wide effects can be enormous. “These bivalves are known as ecosystem engineers since their ability to filter feed can remove algae, improve water clarity, and have downstream effects on habitats like seagrass meadows that need clear water to thrive. Sometimes numbers are used as hyperbole, but that is how much the landings of hard clams had declined from the 1970s to 2011 in Shinnecock Bay,” said Stony Brook University Endowed Chair and Professor of Marine Science Chris Gobler, lead author of the study. And while the situation was emblematic of estuaries across Long Island and across the world, the state of the system seemed particularly dire. As a keystone organism, this loss exacted a trickle-down effect across the entire estuary, as much of the seagrass across this system had been lost, and harmful and intense brown tides were occurring annually. By 2011, the landings of the hard clam, historically the dominant filter feeding bivalve in New York estuaries, had collapsed. Since that time, the fishery collapsed by more than 99 percent and, despite more than four decades of recovery efforts, the fishery never responded, until now.Ī decade ago, Shinnecock Bay was an estuary that was seemingly irrecoverable. In the 1970s, two out of three hard clams eaten in the United States came from Long Island. The Long Island hard clam was once the greatest fishery in the history of New York State. Furthermore, this may serve as a shining example of a process to restore other estuaries around the country and the world. ![]() Scientists from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) announced the culmination of a decade of science in a paper published in Frontiers in Marine Science, which describes a novel restoration approach used in Shinnecock Bay that has led to a 1,700 percent increase in the landings and densities of hard clams in that estuary, along with the expansion of seagrass meadows and the end of harmful brown tides - a result that brings the Shinnecock Bay back to its 20th century glory for shellfishing. Scientists Document Increase in Hard Clam Abundances, Regrowth of Seagrass, End of Brown Tides ![]()
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