Coastal Cultural Experience: Riverhead Foundation, Iron Pier Beach, Fish Ladder

Sea Turtles and Seals go to the Doctor too!
by Kim Marko

With winter right around the corner, we are quickly approaching the cold stunning season for sea turtles. When the water gets too cold and a sea turtles internal body temperature gets below 55 degrees, they start to go into a state of hypothermia and their bodies start to slow down. This often results in them being washed ashore and without the proper medical help, they have a small chance of survival; this is where the Riverhead Foundation comes in. In addition to sea turtles, the Riverhead Foundation does a lot of work rehabilitating seals that have stranded. Seals strand for many different reasons such as, being hit by a boat, getting caught in debris or they might be ill. Regardless of the reason they come into the facility, they do everything in their power to help the animal be strong enough to go back into the wild.

When any animal enters the foundation, they go through an initial medial check to see how severe of a case it is, so they can tailor the treatment to the specific animal. Each animal gets a sample of blood taken, this blood work will tell them a few different things like their total protein levels, glucose levels and their kidney functions. Knowing this information is crucial when determining if the animal needs any medicine. They will also perform an x-ray on the animals which allows them to see if their is any internal problems that they may need to worry about. Seals do not drink water, but they still need water to survive. They get their water from the fish they consume, but sometimes when the seals come in they are unable to eat the fish on their own. In cases like this they actually stick a tube into their stomach where they blend the fish and they are able to assist them in the eating process and also give them any additional medicine they may need. Like I mentioned earlier a cold stunned sea turtles body temperature is below 55 degrees and it severely slows down their body. The average heart rate for a turtle is about 30 beats per minute, but in severe cold stun cases, the heart rate could be as slow as one beat every three minutes. The normal average body temperature for a sea turtle is 75 degrees. It is important for them not to raise their body temperature too quickly, so they slowly raise their body temperature about 5 degrees everyday until they get to their normal temperature. Once at a normal body temperature they can keep moving forward with any other medical treatments needed and get them back into the water as soon as possible.

In the room where they perform the initial assessment of the animals, they have signs hanging up showing where you perform the blood sampling.

Returning Marine Animals Home
by Cassidy Bell

While visiting the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation, it was amazing to hear all of the different methods that they use to take in and care for injured marine animals. But perhaps even more amazing than what they did at their facility was what they did after the animals no longer needed their care. The Riverhead Foundation takes in a large number of sick and injured seals, sea turtles, and even occasionally cetaceans in order to help them after they catch illnesses or get injuries from natural causes, like shark bites, or human causes, like boat strikes. Many of these animals are released back into the wild, such as the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle Cardamom in the front room of the Foundation that is waiting for release. However, this isn’t where most of these animals’ stories end.

Before releasing healed animals back into the wild, the Riverhead Foundation, along with many other conservation programs throughout the country, tag the animals so that their progress through the ocean can be tracked and they can be identified if ever caught or injured again. Every seal that is released is given a tag on its hind left flipper that gives it an identification code as well as marking it as an individual helped by the Riverhead Foundation. Some seals are also given satellite tags which, while certainly more expensive than flipper tags, allows for the conservationists to track the location, diving depth, and hauling behaviors of the seals for a set period of time. The sea turtles are also given flipper tags. Two metal tags are placed on the turtle, one on each hind flipper, and work similarly to the flipper tags of the seals. However, the satellite tags are a little big for the sea turtles. Instead, a tag called a pit tag is inserted that works like the micro-tags that many people use on their pet dogs. A hand-held machine is used to scan the turtles and a code is shown that identifies it as an individual and shows where it was originally tagged. With this technology, the Riverhead Foundation is able to track the young animals that it helps as has found them later on in life as successful, mature nest-builders. The success of the Foundation’s release program and their ability to track the animals that they help all the way through adulthood shows the importance of programs such as these and the importance of supporting local conservation efforts in whatever way you can – they are always looking for volunteers! 

The New York Nester
by Emily Richters

This year in June 2018, a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle made a nest on Breezy Point beach. There, she lay 110 eggs. This was a huge deal because this is the first sea turtle documented to nest in New York! Coincidentally, she laid these eggs on a Piper Plover protected nesting area where there was easy access to protective gear. 60 days later, the nest was threatened with extreme high tides. Rescuers took the initiative to excavate the nest and incubate the eggs in a cooler containing sand from the same beach. This way, they were sure to prevent the eggs from drowning. Not only are these sea turtles critically endangered, but these were to be the first documented sea turtles to hatch in New York. All safety measures had to be instated.

Once rescuers started to notice signs of hatching 12 days later, the eggs were immediately transported to the same exact spot they came from. Out of the 110 eggs laid, 96 survived to crawl out towards the ocean. Most of these baby sea turtles are assumed to be male. Reptiles have a unique way of determining gender, and that is by temperature. If the eggs are incubated in warm sand, the hatchlings are most likely to be mostly females. If the eggs are incubated in cool sands, the litter is most likely to be dominated by males. Researchers are still unsure where the mother sea turtle came from. Genetics tests are being done using the DNA of the unborn hatchlings to see if there is a population match. This will pinpoint the location where she came from.

Adult females only reproduce once every 2 to 3 years. During this time, she carefully chooses a safe beach, and works hard to create a protective nest. She will relocate and build multiple nests until she makes a perfect one. Then, she lays her eggs which could be up to 150 at a time! There is currently no nesting protocol in New York State. There was never a need for one. A protocol was never drawn up for sea turtle nesting since there was never any documented occurrence of one. However, this has all changed this year. As of 2018, a new nesting protocol is being drawn up. Maybe in 2 years, this female will come back to nest again. Sea turtles usually return to the same nesting area in which they were born from. From birth, they usually take 15 to 20 years to sexually mature. Maybe in 15 years, the surviving females will come back to this beach to nest for the first time. We must prepare now for when this happens, because this may be the start to hatching events in New York.

Turtles
by Sarah Stromski

Sea turtle are vital to our ocean’s ecosystems, although it may not seem like they have the biggest impact. Some common species in our area around Long Island consist of Leatherback, Atlantic Green, Kemps Ridley, Loggerhead, and Hawksbill. Leatherbacks have been known to eat upwards of about 400 pounds of jellyfish each day, keeping populations in check. With a control of the jellyfish populations, fish stocks are able to recover faster, since jellyfish prefer to feed on fish larvae and eggs. Atlantic Greens help to maintain healthy seagrass beds, since they constantly graze upon the beds, which prevent overgrowing, and decomposition. This is especially important around Long Island since our seagrass beds are declining rapidly. Hawksbills help to mitigate sponge populations, thus helping coral reef communities, since they are both major competitors for space. This creates more habitat complexity, and therefore more biodiversity. Loggerhead sea turtles feed by clearing the sand in order to reach their preferred prey, crustaceans. By clearing the sand away, it aerates the surrounding sand and increases nutrient distribution of that area as well as species diversity.

One of the biggest threats to sea turtle populations worldwide is plastic. Some of you may have seen videos such as the one where a man is pulling out a straw lodged in the nasal cavity of a poor sea turtle. Straws are not the only threat though; plastic bags are another threat since they resemble jellyfish and sometimes other plastics can resemble other normal food items. By ingesting these plastics, the turtles can starve to death since plastic cannot be properly digested, like their normal food so it all remains in their stomachs. After learning of the importance of sea turtles for ecosystems, I hope you will take a moment to consider not using single-use plastics, because even some recycled single-use plastics such as straws and plastic bags, make their way into the oceans.

Fishes Can’t Climb Trees, But They Can Use Ladders
by Delphine Mossman

Though the salmon is the most iconic, there are many fishes that split their lives between salt and fresh water, in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and their respective coasts. Here on Long Island, the alewife and the American eel are two such species. Alewives mirror salmon in their breeding patterns; the adults live at sea, returning to a river or stream only to spawn before they swim back to the ocean. Juveniles typically stay in the river for only a short period of time before making their way down to the sea as well, where they grow and mature to repeat the process over again.

American eels, on the other hand, have almost the exact opposite lifestyle. The adults of the species live in freshwater and migrate downstream to the Sargasso Sea off the east coast of North America to spawn and die. The juveniles, known as "glass eels" due to their transparency, must then make their way back upstream to their adult habitat, a daunting task for an animal not even as long as the palm of your hand.

Though these species travel in opposite directions, they are both deeply affected by human development of rivers, lakes, streams, and other bodies of freshwater. An alewife can only jump over a barrier about six inches tall; any taller and the rest of the upstream habitat is effectively closed off. Glass eels are even less well off, even less able to jump barriers or swim against powerful currents generated by dams. And, of course, both are susceptible to toxins in the water, decreased levels of dissolved oxygen due to eutrophication, and overexploitation. It is only in recent decades that measures have been taken in order to mitigate human impact on these species, and other migratory species in the area.

A fish ladder in the Peconic River, constructed to allow spawning alewives to move further upstream, past a small dam just out of frame on the left.

The most widely used method of allowing migratory fishes to go around barriers such as dams is a fish ladder. By redirecting water at a gentler slope than the dam, some fishes can swim up the metal tube and reach more habitat further upstream. This will hopefully allow more to successfully spawn, increasing their numbers. However, these fish ladders are still too steep and the current still too strong for the small glass eels.

An eel ladder in the Peconic River, constructed to allow juvenile eels to move further upstream.

For the eels, a specialized fish ladder known as an eel ladder must be constructed. Eel ladders are formed by a ramp kept minimally wet that extends from the top to bottom of the dam. Because eels can move over material for a limited time as long as it is damp, they are able to "climb" over the dam using the ramp, which is made of some type of material that allows them to slither up it. As with the alewives, the hope is that this will give American eel numbers a boost by opening up more habitat for them to grow in.

Shell for the Sea: boat gas stations
by Claire Garfield

Have you ever wondered how large shipping vessels get fuel? They have to cross the ocean, so they must load up somewhere. Yet a ship designed to carry tons of good can’t simply pull up anywhere and fuel up. Luckily, ships entering and leaving New York City Harbor can make a much-needed stop before a long journey right off the north shore of Long Island.

Having fueling station in a harbor, especially a populated harbor, would be incredibly risky being that as a rule populated areas and combustive substances shouldn’t be mixed. Furthermore, it is incredibly inconvenient for large ships to dock in a harbor to fuel up. The fueling station off of the north shore is in sight of land, but sufficiently off shore as to keep people safe and shipping as stream-lined as possible. The fuel is stored above the bluffs on the shore and makes its way to the fueling station via a connective pipeline that runs along the bottom of the Long Island Sound. The fueling station may seem unimportant, or maybe even a bit bizarre, as it is a rather ugly structure protruding from an otherwise untouched swash of ocean. Despite its looks, the fueling station is of major importance to shipping. A major concern of Super Storm Sandy was the damage done to the fueling stations. Aside from representing a possible environmental and safety issue, the fueling stations are of essential to shipping. So even though it’s just a gas station for a boat, marine fueling stations are really pretty cool and important!

Figure 1. A marine fueling station right in our neighborhood.

Figure 2. A view from Riverhead of the Long Island Sound and some bluffs.

Coastal Cultural Experience: Sayville Maritime Museum

The Loss of Natural Born Oysters on Long Island
by Sabrina Simone

Long Island is known for many things, one of them being the love and supply for shellfish. In the late 1700’s, oysters were the most popular shellfish dish for Long Islanders. What once started out as a hobby because a full-blown industry. Oystermen would open roughly 2,000 oysters a day. Long Islanders were eating so many that the streets were practically made of oyster shells. The demand continued to grow until around the early 1800’s when it was observed that oystermen were harvesting fewer and fewer oysters. They would soon learn that many oyster beds were empty or destroyed from the high demand.

Figure 1 – An image I took of an image provided by the Rudolph Oyster House at the Sayville Maritime Museum. This image shows a large pile of oyster shells with oystermen standing on top. This quantity of oysters being harvested was very common.

In addition to overfishing for oysters, there were other factors that aided in the oyster population decline. One main factor was from duck farm waste. With large quantities of ducks being farmed, there resulted in large quantities of waste. This was a problem because the waste would run off into local waterways and enter the bay systems where the oyster beds were thriving. The increase in nutrients from the duck waste would cause an increase in algal production. This was not good for growing oysters because it led to algal blooms. Too much algae can reduce the amount of oxygen in the water and can be too much for the oysters to filter. As oysters can filter large quantities of water in a short period of time, filtering gallons of contaminated water caused oyster populations to suffer.

The 1950’s to 1960’s spelled the end for natural oysters on Long Island. Today, locals and environmentalists are working to restore these populations. There are multiple projects currently in effect aiming to re-introduce oysters and rebuild their numbers. This is being done by creating various oyster farms for larvae to thrive, as well as by the use of sanctuaries for oysters to go through a natural life cycle without being fished. While the restoration process is still young, it is a step in the right direction towards bringing back natural oysters to Long Island.

Figure 2 – Another image I took of a pile of oysters on display at the Rudolph Oyster House at the Sayville Maritime Museum. This is an idea of the number of oysters one oysterman might shuck in one day.

Day in The Life of The United States Life-Saving Service
by Christian Iniguez-Ulloa

These clothes are on display at the Long Island Maritime Museum in Sayville. They are clothes that would have been worn by people in the United States life-saving service. Those people would be in charge of helping boats that would get stuck around Fire Island while trying to reach New York City. At first their occupation was only part time and seasonal job but became a fulltime job due to amount of ships that would get stuck.

This is a display at the Long Island Maritime Museum in Sayville of a Breeches Buoy. A Breeches Buoy was essentially a zip line that would bring people from ships onto shore. This was done by shooting a line from shore onto ships with instructions telling the sailors to attach it to high part of their sails and setting up the other part on land. This method was mostly used when there was a little amount of people on the ships.

This is a life car that is also on display at the Long Island Maritime Museum in Sayville. A life car was used when for the same purpose as Breeches Buoy but when there were more people on the ships. Like the Breeches Buoy a messenger line would be shot over to the ships except now multiple people can go inside and be rescued at once. The life car would be pulled back and forth between the shore and the ship until everyone was safe. Since there were holes for air there was some water that would make its way into the life car, but it did it just well.

This kart was used by the United States life-saving service and it is on display at the Long Island Maritime Museum. Whenever there would be a ship that would crash around Fire Island the life-saving service men would bring these karts to the shore where the ships where. The karts were filled with all the tools need to rescue the passengers on the crashed vessels.

Disaster aboard the SS General Slocum
by Brad McGuire

On June 15, 1904, a passenger ship owned by the Knickerbocker Steam Company, the SS General Slocum, embarked on a day trip down the East River with a load of 1,360 passengers. Approximately a half of an hour from the Slocum’s destination, a fire was discovered aboard in one of the ship’s storage rooms. When emergency measures were deployed, many turned out to be old and in a poor enough condition that they failed: the fire hoses burst when used, the lifeboats were wire tied to the side of the ship, and the life jackets were so old as to ensure the drowning of the user. In an attempt to save those on board, the captain managed to beach the ship on a sandy area near North Brother Island. During the time spent maneuvering to this point, the fire grew and it is estimated that 600 people were killed when the decks eventually collapsed. Between the fire and those who drowned or were crushed by the ship’s paddles, the number dead came up to 1,031.

The disaster of the fire on the SS General Slocum was the worst maritime disaster in the history of New York City, and the second worst maritime disaster to ever occur on US waterways. Before the events of September 11, 2001, it ranked as the worst disaster to have occurred in the New York area. The ship’s captain, William van Schaick, was ultimately convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years in Sing Sing prison for his negligence and actions. The event itself made international news and is still the worst ever peacetime maritime disaster to occur in US waters.

Photo Credit: Fire aboard the SS General Slocum. Long Island Maritime Museum. Taken by Brad McGuire

The Life and Times of Long Island Oystermen
By John Maniscalco

This past week in our coastal cultural experience class, we had the opportunity to go to the Long island maritime museum located in Sayville, NY. While at the museum we learned about various things about maritime culture and how they pertain to Long Island. Oystering in particular, was a very prominent part of Long Island culture. During the 19th and 20th centuries oysters were found in vast numbers all across Long Island. These oysters shaped not only the culture of Long Island, but also the lives of the oystermen, whose livelihood had become dependent upon Long Island oysters. It was while at the museum we got an inside look into what the life of a oysterman was like.

To harvest the oysters, oystermen would travel out to the bay where they would use large tongs. These tongs were essentially long poles with very large baskets attached on the ends. Even in the winter when the bay would freeze over, oystermen would go out onto the ice with a horse and cart and harvest oysters with the tongs. However, the tongs were not very efficient. Thus, large metal dredges, which are large metal baskets that would be dragged behind the boat, became more popular. As oysters were being harvested, oystermen would go to the oyster house, where they would process the many oysters that would come into the oyster house each day. Processing these oysters included shucking, packing, and shipping them. Unfortunately, the oystermen were not paid by the hour. Instead they were paid by the number of oysters they could shuck in a day. To make matters worse, the oyster houses were cold and wet; making a harsh working environment. In addition, oystermen would be standing all day. Nonetheless, thousands of oysters were required to be opened each day in order for the oystermen to make any kind of money; which is exactly what happened. Many oystermen during the peak of their profession were able to support their families with the money made while oystering. In other words, a lot of oysters were processed during this time. However, all of this was taking place during a period known as the ‘gilded age’. ‘Gilded’, which during this time refers to the fact that it seemed like the oystermen were prospering, when in reality this may not have been the case.

As mentioned before, oystermen seemed to be prospering during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. However, for a few reasons as time went on oystering became more of an issue. One reason being, oysters only could be caught during the colder months; September through April to be exact. Thus, oystermen turned to clams in the summer. Regrettably, clams were not as profitable as oysters. That said, the decline of oystering was more of a result of the technology than anything else. This was because where dredges were more efficient. They also left a negative impact on the bays as well. Dredging left a negative impact due to digging up the bays. Even more so, the eelgrass which was responsible for keeping the bay calm, was also torn up by the constant dredging. As a result, the bay became more turbulent. By the 1950’s, oyster populations hit an all-time low; causing the oystermen to pretty much go extinct. They then turned to clamming as result, but as mentioned before this was nowhere nearly as profitable as oystering. Currently, oyster farms have become quite popular as they are still in high demand across the country. However, it is safe to say that where oysters were once plentiful so were oystermen. Nevertheless, due to the decline of the Long Island oyster populations the life of oystermen changed with the changing population.

A Tale of Two Ships
by Emelie Einhorn

All photo credit to the Long Island Maritime Museum

You may have read about coastal response and rescue teams in my classmates’ blog posts, especially those written about Fire Island’s unique history. Here is another story about Fire Island, though this one shows that their system was limited by human capabilities.

On February 8th 1895, the John B Manning crashed on the sand bar running along Fire Island. The 12 sailors on board were likely panicking, however the rescue crews on the coast were quick to respond, managing to save everyone on board. The rescue crew was tired and cold by the end of their operation, ready to pack up and head home. However, in an unfortunate twist of fate, another ship, the Louis B Place, had crashed a few miles away at almost the same time as the John B Manning had. Upon learning of the second crash, the rescue team reluctantly headed over to the second crash. The 8 men on board had been patiently waiting during the entire rescue of the John B Manning, so by this point the crew was too cold and frostbitten from the early February weather to grab the paddle attached to the rope that would set up the britches buoy system from the water. The rescue crew had to wait for the weather to improve before sailing out to the Louis B Place, and by this point 6 of the crew had already succumbed to the cold. Only 2 men were rescued, one dying of his injuries soon after. Today, all 8 sailors are buried together in Patchogue and serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of maritime travel.

This photograph shows the Louis V Place being launched from port for the first time, several years before its crash off of Fire Island.

This is a photograph of the deck of the John B Manning. The sailors are awaiting rescue while the team on shore sets up the cannons and britches buoy system.

This photo shows just how close the two wrecks were, and just how fortunate the sailors on board the John B Manning were to crash first lest they suffer the fate of the crew of the Louis B Place.

Boats!

by Amanda Ackermann

The Long Island Maritime Museum in Sayville boasts a number of boat models, and a boat shed with different kinds of boats that were donated to the museum. Each has a historical background, with significance to the area. Below are three images of the old Fire Island Ferry, a specialized sailboat made for ice racing, the Two Brothers and a comparison picture of a typical racing sailboat.

These two images are of the Alice V. The ferry to and from Fire Island began in 1948¹, and left from Sayville. The Alice V. was an early ferry boat, and once retired was used for oyster fishing.
During the prohibition era, some Fire Island ferries were used by the rum-runners to smuggle alcohol from Fire Island into the city, as Fire Island made an ideal place for illegal booze to be hidden. While this boat in particular was most likely not used for smuggling, the ferry boat “Running Wild” was known for its smuggling and still has patched over bullet marks left from its run-ins with the Coast
Guard (this boat was sold to a man in Sayville, unfortunately not the museum)².

 This flat looking sail boat is an ice boat that was used for racing over the ice. It’s fitted with three runners/skates at the bottom that allowed it to skate quickly over the ice. The sails are modified with patches to allow the person at the helm to see through the sails. The sport of sailing ice boats is called ‘ice yachting’ and is popular on the Hudson River and in Long Island Sound. The first ice boat in America was in 1790, and were historically used for ice fishing and transportation across frozen bodies of water. Today the Northwest Ice Yacht Association holds annual ice boat regattas, and has been doing so for 100 years^3.

This boat is the Two Brothers, a boat that was built by a man for his two sons to practice sailing. He had said “If you could sail this boat, you could sail any boat”. This boat had the structure of an older sailing vessel, as can be seen by the rigging and sails. The second image shows just how complex the lines can be. Below is a racing sailboat, and compared to this one, the Two Brothers would have no problem sailing it.

A typical sailboat. In the middle there is a fin structure that would be used to keep the boat balanced when there were strong winds. This fin could be moved up or down, depending on how shallow the water is.

¹Fireislandferries.com

²fireisland-news.com/history-rumrunners-of-fire-island/

3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_boat