June 30, 2008

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Big brown tide bodes ill for South Shore bays

BY JENNIFER SMITH | mailto:[email-masked]&subject=Big%20brown%20tide%20bodes%20ill%20for%20South%20Shore%20bays
June 29, 2008

A massive, months-long bloom of algae, known as brown tide, may be disrupting the ecology of Long Island's South Shore bays, stunting the growth of young clams and blocking light from aquatic plants that serve as crucial nurseries for marine life.

This year the bloom cropped up in April - two months earlier than is typical - after a spate of unusually warm, dry weather. The algae appeared for the first time as far west as South Oyster Bay, moved east across the Great South Bay and have bloomed off Southampton, Quogue and the Moriches.

Local waters have turned the color of coffee or strong tea, depending on the intensity of the bloom. In some areas, underwater visibility has declined to two feet or less.

"Essentially, we're in a situation now where the only clear water on the South Shore of Long Island is near the ocean inlets," said Christopher Gobler, an associate professor at Stony Brook University's school of marine and atmospheric sciences and a brown tide expert.

While not toxic to humans, the plankton that causes brown tide produces a chemical that makes it harder for clams and other bivalves to feed. The algae's initial appearance in 1985 triggered the collapse of the Peconic Bay scallop fishery; they also killed off eelgrass beds on the East End and South Shore by shading out sunlight the plants need for photosynthesis.

Just how this year's protracted bloom will affect life in the bays remains to be seen. Clammers still ply their trade in the murky Great South Bay, and the bloom has yet to dampen business at Captree Clam, a West Babylon seafood wholesaler that buys clams from all over Long Island, said owner Bill Zeller.

Still, the intensity, duration and extent of this year's bloom poses a contrast to recent years, when brown tides tended to be more sporadic, localized affairs.

The bloom now appears to be receding from Nassau County waters, according to recent samples taken by the Suffolk County department. But concentrations of Aureococcus anophagefferens - the marine organism that causes brown tide - remain high in the Great South Bay and are rising in eastern Moriches Bay, Quantuck Bay and western Shinnecock Bay, said Robert Waters, supervisor of the department's bureau of marine resources.

Gobler worries that this year's extra months of dark water have damaged fragile South Shore estuaries like the Great South Bay, which has yet to fully recover from the widespread crash of its once-abundant hard clam population. Locals are also reporting fewer fish and shorebirds than in past years, he said.

Marine biologist Carl LoBue of the Nature Conservancy on Long Island said the brown tide may hamper clams' ability to reproduce this year.

"The clams are surviving fine," said LoBue, who oversees the group's clam restoration efforts at a 13,400-acre underwater preserve off Sayville. "But they're not fattening up like they usually do this time of year, so we probably think we won't get a good spawn."

The algae are expected to diminish by midsummer as the bay waters warm. Past lengthy blooms have returned as soon as late August and lingered through the fall, Gobler said.

The multitudes of clams found in the Great South Bay during its 1970s heyday could have kept brown tide in check by eating enough of the algae to stave off a massive bloom.

"We had the whole bay being filtered by clams every few days," Gobler said, adding it now takes the few clams that remain there as long as three months to do the same thing.

BLOOM TIME: WHY IT HURTS

Starves filter-feeders

Scientists think Aureococcus anophagefferens, the tiny plankton that causes brown tide, produces a chemical that in high concentrations stops the activity of filter-feeding structures called cilia, causing clams and scallops to starve.

Blocks light

Intense blooms can prevent the sunlight marine plants need to grow from reaching bay bottoms. This inhibits growth of eelgrass, which provides vital nursery habitat for finfish and shellfish.

Hurts shellfishing industry

Dense blooms of brown tide in 1985 have been blamed for the demise of the Peconic Bay scallop fishery. Repeated brown tides may have prevented clams in the Great South Bay from rebounding after steep declines in the late 1970s.

Source: New York Sea Grant's Brown Tide Research Initiative

Plankton scourge

Brown tide, the massive algae bloom linked to the decline of Long Island bay scallops and hard clams, was detected in April, two monts earlier than usual.

Monitoing stations

South Oyster Bay

Great South Bay

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