Environment

Marine scientists have sounded new alarms over the effects of a warming climate on marine life on the South Fork in the months since a massive die-off of bay scallops in the Peconic Estuary.

Lake Montauk got an influx of 100,000 new oysters along its shores last week from the Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program, as part of a water quality improvement effort organized and funded by the Concerned Citizens of Montauk and Gurney’s Star Island Resort & Marina.

The National Weather Service has issued a tropical storm warning for the East End through Wednesday morning as Tropical Storm Isaias, which is expected to strengthen to a hurricane on Monday, makes it way north along the Atlantic coastline.

Southampton Fights Invasion Of Dirt Bikes On Public Trails

A new species of seaweed that can be extremely toxic to fish and shellfish has spread throughout Long Island’s bays in the last three years and could pose a dangerous threat to many marine species, marine biologists from Stony Brook University announced this week.

A juvenile white shark that was found dead on the beach in Southampton Village, and several others like it that have washed up on South Fork beaches in recent years are providing marine biologists from Georgia to Cape Cod with a rare and scientifically important opportunity to study one of the ocean’s most famous species.

Just as the volume of seasonal commuter aircraft flights to the South Fork would typically be increasingly significantly on weekends — driving residents of the neighborhoods under its approaches to distraction — the coronavirus epidemic has all but halted the much-maligned roar of helicopters using the airport.

State Ignores Objections, Approves Mine Expansion That Would Create 6-Acre Lake In East Hampton

The metro area helicopter companies that fly between New York and East Hampton Airport, prompting thousands of noise complaints from aggrieved homeowners across the East End, have agreed to fly newly modified voluntary noise abatement routes that East Hampton Town’s airport management published on the town website in late January. The routes keep traffic from flying across the North Fork and also reduce flights over East Hampton village, Bridgehampton and Sagaponack.

The plan to put the first dock in Otter Pond Creek died last week in the face of continuing resistance from the Harbor Committee of Sag Harbor after months of review, debate and discussion.

To solve your stormwater runoff and pollution problems, put the land and its flora and fauna — or at least strategically located patches of it — back to the way it was before we paved and planted it with lawns.

The Environmental Protection Agency will not be investigating the Sand Land mine in Noyac — and it will not be designated as a Superfund site.

Facing continuing intense political pressure over airport noise, the Town of East Hampton has published new voluntary noise abatement routes for helicopters using the town airport even though the Eastern Region Helicopter Council has not yet agreed to follow them.

A two-year study of water quality in Sag Harbor found that it is good overall but that nitrogen loading, mostly from conventional cesspools and septic tanks leaching untreated waste into groundwater, is promoting algae growth including a rust tide in the summer. The study also found that fecal bacteria — some of it from human waste, possibly including boaters illegally releasing effluent — is an issue in some locations.

The Sag Harbor Yacht Club’s plan to replace an aging, creosoted wooden bulkhead on its Bay Street waterfront with a new vinyl bulkhead sparked a public brainstorming session on February 6 as the chair of the Harbor Committee, Mary Ann Eddy, pushed for the work to complement a publicly funded water quality project that will be installed this spring on either side of the Yacht Club site to reduce stormwater runoff.