Coastal Cultural Experience: Kayaking and Seafood Cookout

The clam before the storm: Coastal Cultural Experience
by Claire Garfield

The only thing that disturbed the still and silent water of North Sea Harbor, aside from some very eager Coastal Cultural Experience students, was a lone fisherman trudging through the sediment in search of clams. Despite their unassuming appearance, clams and other filter-feeding bivalves have played an integral role in Long Island’s natural and cultural history.

When the first Europeans stepped foot on Long Island at Conscious Point, they used the water around them for food and other practicalities of everyday life in the 1640s; however, just like the college students that call Stony Brook Southampton home now, they wanted something familiar to eat. Lobsters, a delicacy now, were too unfamiliar to be palatable, but shellfish like clams, oysters, and mussels were reminiscent enough of home and therefore acceptable. Life in a new place is always tricky though and the early Long Island settlers wasted nothing of the shellfish they found. After eating the organism, the shells were ground up and used to whitewash homes.

Bivalves are still important in Long Island waters. They’re great cleaners, in fact, since the decline of clam populations in the Great South Bay from 1976 to 2005, time to filter the bay has increased from 3 days to 90 days [1]! Luckily, communities like Southampton recognize the importance of balancing cultivating and protecting the bivalves of North Sea Harbor. Within the harbor lies a protected area where clams are left undisturbed. Nearby are floating barrels for mussels that pop to the surface when the mussels are ready. The Southampton Conservation board works along international organizations like the Nature Conservancy to protect vital habitat. Despite a decline in bivalves in the past, people of the South Fork seem committed to conservation and a better future for our filter-feeding friends is in sight! A great impetus for us is how tasty they are as we were treated to a fish fry made from local seafood!

1. Bretsch, Kurt. Long Island Marine Habitats, lecture 3.

Figure 1. A sunset treated us as we enjoyed our fish fry complete with some local bivalves. Source: Claire Garfield

The Trials of the Terrapin
by Brandy Jones

As we paddled through North Sea Harbor, we took in the overcast afternoon, feeling the increasing chill to the air as it swept away the final day of summer. Crossing into Fish Cove, a fellow Semester by the Sea student spotted what may have been the head of a diamondback terrapin turtle. As the only species of turtle in North America that lives in brackish environments, meaning a mixture of salt and freshwater, the diamondback can be found occupying coastal salt marshes, bays, coves, estuaries, and tidal creeks [1]. While our class discussion only touched on the terrapin turtle briefly, mentioning their petite size and usual habitats, it sparked an interest in me as we failed to spot any others while kayaking. Were the terrapins yet another species being over harvested in Long Island, or were they simply hiding from us?

Diamondback terrapin turtles have been a source of protein for hundreds of years. During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, terrapin soup was considered a gourmet food and the unregulated capture of these animals decreased the population drastically in New York [1]. While the people of the early 20th century began to recognize the decrease of diamondback terrapins, it was not until 1990 that regulations were put into place to protect them [2]. Fast forward to today: terrapins not only face problems such as climate change, rising sea levels introducing inhabitable levels of salt into their homes, death by boats or cars while finding a spot to nest, predation, and pollution, they also fall victim to drowning in crab traps placed throughout Long Island [3].

Crab trap deaths of diamondback terrapins are one of the leading causes of their population decline. Organizations such as The Nature Conservancy and the Seatuck Environmental Association have teamed up with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) in order to implement ways to reduce terrapin death by both crab traps as well as the capture and sale for human consumption. Thanks to their efforts, 2018 will be the first year that terrapins are prohibited from being directly captured anywhere in New York State, as well as the first year that the NYS DEC requires all crab traps placed in densely terrapin populated areas to contain Turtle Excluder Devices (TED’s) which will prevent them from swimming into these traps, but still allow for crabs to enter [2].

As I think about all of the wonderful creatures we have seen during our classes and field trips thus far, I feel hopeful that more and more young people like myself and the rest of the Semester by the Sea students will be able to see and learn about keeping our wildlife safe. With these changes, hopefully the subsequent classes will find more of the diamondback terrapin turtles during their kayak trips.

Works Cited

1. “Diamondback Terrapin – Watchable Wildlife”. Official Web Page of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/59652.html

2. LoBue, Carl. “Good News for NY Diamondback Terrapins!” Fire Island and Beyond, 2018 March 16, https://http://fireislandandbeyond.com/good-news-for-ny-diamondback-terrapins/ 3. “Long Island Diamondback Terrapin Protection Project”. Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon Society, https://www.hobaudubon.org/diamondback-terrapin-protection-project.asp


Never Fight with a Pregnant Woman—A Brief History of Conscience Point, NY 
by Courtney Stuart

This Friday’s “class” involved kayaking around Conscience Point in Long Island’s North Sea Harbor. Although the trip may have been slightly challenging for some of our beginner kayakers, it was nothing compared to the journey made by a small band of English colonists who first arrived at this very site in the summer of 1640. Despite the plan to head further west along the island, the pilgrims’ restless journey was cut short thanks to one very weary passenger, an eight-and-a-half-month pregnant woman. On what was planned to be a quick stop along the way, the exhausted and assuredly sick woman disembarked the vessel and could not be convinced to return—claiming that her conscience told her this is where they must stay. Her husband and the rest of the vessel’s members, knowing full well not to fight with an angry pregnant woman, agreed to stay and make this their new settlement.

The pilgrims, unfamiliar with their newly settled environment, learned an important lesson from the Shinnecock Indians who had been living in the area for centuries. That lesson was the difference between living alongside the water and living on top of it. As the Native Americans had probably learned the hard way, living on top of the water and facing the constant threat of coastal flooding was not ideal. Rather, it was best to build slightly inland, while still maintaining a close relationship with the seas. The remnants of this lesson can still be seen in the North Sea today, the original Conscience Point and surrounding marshes are undeveloped and wild. In contrast, modern houses, docks, and boats fill the opposite coastline, creating a stark juxtaposition between the two sides of this small bay.

As for Conscience Point today, it is now part of a 60-acre national wildlife sanctuary managed by the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex. The sanctuary serves as a refuge for maritime grasslands, woodlands, and salt marshes, as well as the wildlife associated with these habitats—osprey, terrapin turtles, heron, fish, warblers, and the various shellfish that live within the protective habitat of the submerged vegetation [1]. An unforeseen stopping point for Pilgrims has become a crucial component of the modern coastline’s wetland network—known by Long Islanders as the Cow Neck Complex—which comprises over 300 acres of land and exposed tidal flats. The complex is partially owned by the Nature Conservancy, a global non-profit organization that has been dedicated to the protecting both the natural environment since 1951 [2]

Figure 1. My Coastal Cultural Experience classmates enjoying a beautiful day and an exciting lecture in our outdoor “classroom”—right on the water of Long Island’s North Sea Harbor.

Although there is no way of knowing how the exhausted pilgrims felt when they arrived at this place, I can say for certain that our class enjoyed all of the natural beauty and history that Conscience Point had to offer.

1. “Conscience Point - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.” Official Web Page of the U S Fish and Wildlife Service, 19 June 2018, www.fws.gov/refuge/conscience_point/.

2. “Who We Are.” The Nature Conservancy, www.nature.org/en-us/.

Easthampton Baymen’s Association
The greatest in theby  nation
by Emily Richters

Cleverly coined, Bonackers, named after Accabonac Harbor, were the fishing families. These are the families that made a living off of what the bay provided. Anything living in it was game. From eel, to fish, to even clams and snapping turtles, all depending on the season [3]. Since the 1950’s, the Baymen’s Association is a fishermen’s organization that plays an active role in politics, kind of like a Union [3].

The Baymen’s lives depend on the waters. Since the 50s, it has been getting harder and harder for fishermen to get by. This has a lot to do with pollution, climate change and the environmental regulations in response to it. [1] Many fishermen came from a generations-long line of baymen, but because of the great dying off and the push back against fishing, these lines have ended. Fathers discouraging their sons to take up the family businesses, they saw no future for it anymore [1].

In 1992, the New York Sportfishing Federation pushed to make striped bass, the “Money Fish,” wanted the state to make them gamefish only. The East Hampton Town Baymen’s Association organized a civil disobedience protest at Indian Wells Beach [2]. Many participated, including Billy Joel, in picking bass from a haul seine in protest. Many were also arrested for doing so. Billy Joel even wrote a song, “Downeaster Alexa,” about a bayman who could no longer run his bass fishery due to state regulations [2].

Bonackers and fishermen today are still struggling to make a living. There once was thousands fishing and making a living off the bays, but now there are only a few left. This has largely got to do with environmental regulations killing the fishing industry. The fishing industry is one of the more important ones in the world. Tara Rider says that 80% of the world’s main source of protein is from fish. The waters give us life. But there has got to be a balance. Although it is important for fish to live in healthy waters and within healthy populations, one has got to think about the lives of the fishermen and the groups of people that they are feeding.

The East Hampton baymen association and supporters protesting state conservation laws in 1992. On the left is Billy Joel [1].

Citations

1. Drumm , Russell. “Recalling the Striped Bass War, 20 Years On.” The East Hampton Star, easthamptonstar.com/?q=Lead-article/2012628/Recalling-Striped-Bass-War-20-Years.

2. LeDUFF, CHARLIE. “Last Days Of the Baymen.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Apr. 1997, www.nytimes.com/1997/04/20/nyregion/last-days-of-the-baymen.html.e
 
3. Smithsonian. “East Hampton.” Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Smithsonian, 2004, festival.si.edu/2004/water-ways/east-hampton/smithsonian.

The Alewife And The Osprey

by Delphine Mossman

An alewife is an unassuming little fish. A little bigger than your forearm, its flank is a shining silver, with dorsal and tail fins of a contrasting dark gray. It spends its adult life in the ocean, but returns to brackish streams several times over its life to spawn all along the eastern coast of North America. In spring, they pack in by the thousands, leaping and frothing masses.

In September, Fish Cove is calm and peaceful, with only the occasional silverside or menhaden breaking the surface. We drift with the wind, linked kayak-to-kayak to a dying tree with branches that brush the surface of the water. Alewives, Tara tells us, were once a massive fishery; but, like many before them, humans pulled them out of the water at unsustainable numbers. Population crash. Catch moratoria. Species of Concern listing with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries service. And so they limp along, slowly rebuilding their numbers, serving as food for many of the predators in the area.

I think about the first alewife that arrives at one of these brackish streams for the breeding season. Nosing its way into unfamiliar, or perhaps familiar, waters, driven by instinct that has called it so far. It is alone, genetics having gifted - or cursed - it with an altered sense of timing. Perhaps the silver scales catch in the light, a bright beacon to any with an eye to see it. And suddenly, it is plucked from its home, gasping, thrashing in talons that pierce its flesh. Perhaps in its last moments, it is still aware enough as the talons turn it to face forward, still aware enough to see the landscape flying below it, a sight no living fish has seen.

Osprey are fishers; indeed, one of their their names is "fishhawk," and they have earned it. They are one of the many predators of alewives, and, as is often the case, one of the many species affected by reckless human behavior. In the 1940s, 50s, 60s, osprey suffered through high exposures of DDT, the "miracle" insecticide. The result: eggshells so thin that they shattered when parents attempted to incubate them, a devastating blow to their populations. Only when Rachel Carson cried out in alarm at the silent spring did humanity take notice. DDT is now banned nearly worldwide, and osprey populations have rebounded, once more able to feast on alewives and other fish on the eastern seaboard. Their curious habit of turning an unfortunate fish to face forward makes it more aerodynamic. Every shred of energy must be saved when working the waters.

I think about the alewife and the osprey, prey and predator, both affected by humans in different ways. They are the lucky survivors, plucked from the edge of extinction. There are those that were not as fortunate. How many species must be driven to the edge, to tumble over or be saved in their eleventh hour, before we will learn?

Our Futures in Sustainability
by Flynn DeLany

Sustainability arose from the earlier environmentalism movement of the mid 20th century. After the Great Depression and World War II, people started to leave their homes and towns. People started to have the extended time off allowing vacation time. They took the opportunity of the vacation time to take a road trip, go camping, see the natural beauty America has to offer. This new appreciation of the land they have been living on gave birth to the environmentalism movement in order for the people to protect what they are finally seeing with their own eyes. The movement of environmentalism flowed and carried through the years picking up ideas of conservation, preservation, environmental policy, and many more. These all combine to establish a new movement of the 21st century that encompasses all of the new ideas and values to save the planet, Sustainability.

Sustainability means just as it reads, with this ideology we are attempting to sustain the environment. As you can imagine, sustainability impacted many of us students in some way as we chose our degree to encompass marine science. We want to help save, protect, and manage on of the most important ecosystems on the planet. These thoughts continued as we sat around the campfire at the end of the day on Friday. Dr. Rider discussed a conference that she and some other Stony Brook faculty will be attending this upcoming week. She is going to a conference to open a discussion about coastal people’s resiliency. She’s was telling us this because she’s going to be missing class but most importantly that our future careers in the marine science field are going to be part of the sustainability of the marine ecosystem. We are going to be a piece of a larger puzzle, a network of people to work towards a sustainable future. As the fire of that night was put out, we were left with a greater question; how are our plans for our futures going to fit into the larger collective of sustainability?

Coastal Cultural Experience: Greenport

Rumrunners in Greenport
by Sarah Stromski

Today we visited my old stomping grounds of Greenport. As we sat on the grass-covered steps of Mitchell Park, I learned something I never knew before: Greenport Harbor played a big part in the 1920’s during Prohibition. Since the neighboring town, Southold was for the prohibition of alcohol (as were many of rural towns during this time), many ships carrying liquor and other types of alcohol had to go into Greenport Harbor. I had known that Greenport was a big whaling town, however I had absolutely no idea this little town had even more history hidden within.

There is one bar in Greenport Village called Brix and Rye, which is a speakeasy-type bar, however it was not an official speakeasy. They do make excellent drinks, though, I highly recommend (for those of you who are over 21, of course). Claudio’s, one of the oldest family-owned restaurants in the country (until recently), was an official speakeasy. Claudio’s actually has a “trap door” leading to a secret passage to hide the liquor. This is very fitting since Claudio’s Clam Bar has a very fun party atmosphere. Supposedly, speakeasies were not how they are portrayed in the movies, with a secret passcode and doorway. They were actually quite like normal bars, just with hidden passageways to hide the liquor.

Even though I have lived out on the North Fork, and going into Greenport Village basically every day, there are so many things I have yet to learn about my own town. It makes me want to go out and explore, maybe even convince someone from Claudio’s to let me go down the trap door behind the bar.

Greenport Blacksmith
by Diana Beckenhaupt
During our trip to Greenport, we visited a smithery near the museum. The blacksmith was historically an essential part of the local economy, responsible for manufacturing things like iron nails, metal parts of buildings, wagons, horseshoes – all crucial to transportation and daily life. In addition, items like clam rakes, anchors, and dredges are equally important to life in a coastal town. Greenport had a blacksmith named Paul during the 1920s to 70s, a German man who supplied the town with necessities, including his own specially reinforced scallop dredges, which are locally prized today. And during WWII, Greenport Village was the largest builder of defense vessels, all with iron parts that could only be made by a blacksmith.

What exactly does a blacksmith do? First, he needs a place to work. The current smithery in Greenport is a repurposed onion drying shed. In the past, smitheries were also cheap wood buildings. As the danger of being burnt down is quite high, no blacksmith would have put much effort into the building. This building must have a chimney and a place to heat up the metal.

The Greenport Smithery’s interior, showing the blacksmith at work. Source: Brad McGuire

Blacksmiths gained their name because unlike other metalsmiths they work with black iron. Different grades of iron exist, depending mostly on the carbon content. As today’s blacksmiths are largely artisans, the strength of the iron matters less than it would have for Paul. One historic type of iron is “bog iron” gathered from the Peconic Bay, then purified in a foundry.

To shape the metal, the blacksmith must heat it up to just under 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. To get such high heat, anthracite coal was used. Anthracite coal is rare, and only found in 2 locations in the US. It is unearthed as “green coal” and must be burnt initially to purified it into a hard, glassy substance (coke) that burns without any smoke.

The iconic anvil is still used to shape the metal. And there are even different minds of anvils – the blacksmith we watched was using a London Anvil, invented by Peter Wright a long time ago.

An article from 1914 detailed the history of the anvil, including this illustration of the various shapes used by metalsmiths for different purposes. Source: http://www.metalsmith.org/pub/mtlsmith/V05.3/Hist-anvil.htm

Each blacksmith customizes his anvil edge as needed; the anvil we saw was reportedly Paul’s original one. Another tool used is the hammer with a flat side (used, unsurprisingly, to flatten metal) and a rounded side (used to draw out surface area).

Blacksmithing is a rare hobby today, and it’s hard to imagine how dependent the world was on black iron for just about everything. The Greenport Museum’s working blacksmith shop is a good way to show visitors how the process would have worked, despite being a recent addition to the town. The original is long gone.

Long Island and Maritime Artifacts
by Christian Iniguez-Ulloa

This picture is on display at the Maritime Museum in Greenport. The picture shows a man surrounded by piles of oyster shells. Seeing this picture gives people an idea of how important shellfish were to settlers in areas like Long Island. These oysters were not only used for consuming and selling but also their shells were grinded up and used as chicken feed.

This artifact is called a signal projector and it can be seen at the Maritime Museum in Greenport. This equipment uses shutters to created flashes of the light by opening and closing the shutters. This provides almost like a visual Morris code for ships to communicate with each other. It was mostly used during WWII to send out messages without the risk of enemy ships intercepting the messages.

This might look like a normal rock at first, but it is actually a tool used by Native Americans and it is on display at the Southold Indian Museum. This native American tool is called a stone mortar. Stone mortars can have two wells in them like the one shown in the picture or one or three wells which they also had displaying along with this one. These mortars had multiple uses for the Native American. They were used to grind corn, beans, nuts, used to prepare clay so they can be turned into pots and also used to grind materials that were used to make paints.

Trip to the Greenport Maritime Museum
by Ana Shore

This Friday, 9/7, our Coastal Culture Experience class took a trip to the Greenport Maritime Museum on Greenport Harbor. The museum had tons of interesting artifacts and several models set up to show how ships from the past few centuries looked. One of the models I found interesting was the one pictured below of a ship on a marine railway. Marine railways, or patent slips, were used for ship repair and construction in the 19th century.

The slips were built from the water and extended inland following a slight incline. The ships would be steered onto a cradle which was placed on the railway and then hauled up the incline onto land. Once on land, the ships could be repaired and then easily moved back into the water by being brought back down the slip. This method was a relatively inexpensive way to bring ships out of water at the time.

A model of a ship on a patent slip at the Greenport Maritime Museum. This device was used to assist with boat repairs in the 19th century.

Here is another picture I took at the museum that features the work of Chris Hamilton. This display at the museum showed several photographs of life at sea from Chris’s collection. I liked this image a lot due to how bright and colorful it was.

An image from Chris Hamilton’s portfolio at the Greenport Museum. This picture shows the life of a fisherman aboard a trawling boat.

East End Seaport Museum Sailmakers Exhibit
by Jennifer Repp

One of the exhibits in the East End Seaport Museum is a Sailmaker’s studio. There is a sign above the exhibit that reads: “ W. J. Mills & Co. Sailmakers”. Starting in 1880 making canvas sails, this company is based in Greenport, NY and is still around today! (source) This photo shows the whole exhibit, arranged as a typical New England sailmaker’s workspace of the time.

This photograph shows the main materials necessary for making sails in the late 1800s and early 1900s: canvas cloth and rope. Although only these few materials were needed, sail making was still profitable as many large vessels for exploration and trading were sail powered before the invention of the motor. Additionally, sails would wear down in the weather and could tear.

Here you see a close-up of the workbench. Like materials, few tools were needed, especially when compared to other trades. The main tools are needles and thread to sew the canvas. Metal eyelets were added to reinforce the holes the line runs through, as you can see in the partially complete sail at the top end of the bench.

Blog Post #1
by Brad McGuire

True to form, the Friday Costal Cultural Experiences class trip to Greenport included the discussion of several topics which had been broached on Wednesday night in Professor Rider’s Maritime Traditions of Long Island session. Of these topics, one which drew my interest in particular was the discussion of who the first European settlers of Long Island were and what combination of forces brought them to the new world. Such driving forces included imperialist forces by the larger European nations to stake out colonies which could produce wealth for the mother countries as well as changes in the structure and dynamics of religion and worship throughout Europe as a whole.

One of the greatest differences between those Europeans who settled on Long Island, let alone throughout the whole of the New England area, and those who settled places such as Cuba or Brazil, was that the men and women who settled along the Northern Atlantic coastline did so to escape persecution. Following years of religious turmoil in England through the years of Henry VIII’s split with the Catholic Church, the differing opinions of his children with regard to the Church of England, and the final introduction of the grandiose taste of the FOP Scot rulers, many believers in England longed for simplicity of worship and practice. Out of this thinking came the movement to “purify the English Church” which resulted in the creation of the Puritans: a sect of the Protestant Church which believed in a simplicity of worship and the ability for one to interpret the teachings of the Bible by oneself.

These Puritans ultimately were the first Englishmen to settle the rocky Northern Atlantic coast and had direct effects upon the physical and cultural composition of the New England and Long Island areas. A desire to take control over one’s own fate and religious destiny ingrained the traits such as active participation in representative government and a fierce disdain for misuse of power and authority, which are commonly recognized to be ingrained in the New England area as a whole and ultimately brought the voices of New Englanders to the forefront of tensions with England preceding the American Revolution. As the initial colony of Massachusetts became more and more crowded with independent worshippers, Puritans continued to expand into the newly created adjacent colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island. Following this same tendency, the first English settlers of Long Island came from the colony of Connecticut, founding the first settlements of Southampton and Southold in 1640. The eastern end of Long Island ultimately came to be settled by these sort of New England-esq communities, giving the area its distinctly New England flavor despite its eventual inclusion into the colony of New York by the English crown after the acquisition of the previously Dutch territory. Although these forces do not entirely encompass the reasons for why Long Island developed the way it did, they do explain where a number of distinct aspects and traditions of Long Island culture derive from and greatly interest me as a progression of historic events.