HAMPTON BAYS STEWARDSHIP SITE
Hampton Bays
Stewardship Site Fund
Bay Scallop + Clam Restoration:
We have seeded millions of shellfish in Southampton Town waters over the years through our partnership with the Southampton Trustees, and a recent grant from the Town enabled us to expand upon this work. In 2021 we were able to establish the first bay scallop nursery in Shinnecock Bay based out of our Tiana Bayside Facility! This was an important first step to being able to scale up bay scallop restoration efforts in this region. Thanks to community support and an additional grant from Southampton Town this vital work will continue in 2024 and we will be able to add to the 250,000 bay scallops we have been able to seed within our Stewardship Site and at additional receiving areas in Town waters.
Background + Goals
Cornell Marine Program has been working with the Town of Southampton for over 20 years, seeding approximately half a million clams, oysters, and scallops annually in town harvest waters. In 2021 the Town Trustees designated a 5 acres shellfish + eelgrass sanctuary site in the waters off of our Tiana Bayside Facility in Hampton Bays, which we have officially integrated into our network of Back to the Bays Stewardship Sites! By including this location in our Back to the Bays network, we will be able to significantly expand our shellfish restoration work in Southampton Town waters. We conduct a multitude of shellfish cultivation and habitat restoration efforts and workshops right on the ground of Tiana Bayside Facility and hope to see you at our Back to the Bays Stewardship Sessions, which take place weekly through the summer! We also invite you to help us reach our fundraising goals by providing any level of support to our Hampton Bays Stewardship site by making a donation to our Hampton Bays Stewardship Site Fund!
Current Work Underway
Shell Recycling Program:
Coastal restaurants typically go through thousands of pounds of oyster shell in one season, all of which often gets sent to a landfill. However, oyster shells hold incredible ecological value! When wild oysters spawn, the larvae seek the shells of other oysters onto which they will set and grow into elaborate reef structures, offering crucial habitat for a menagerie of other marine species. Working with local restaurants, we are developing a robust Shell Recycling Program that we operate on the East End of Long Island at select restaurants. Our key shell recycling partner for this location is Fauna restaurant in Westhampton Beach! We are not currently adding any additional restaurants to our shell recycling network, but if you would like to volunteer with our shell collection team please contact Kate Rossi-Snook at kr474@cornell.edu
Oyster Reef Restoration:
The process of setting oyster larvae on clean, empty oyster shells is called “remote setting.” It is performed in a tank with controlled conditions, and only takes a couple of days for the oyster larvae to find their permanent home. When oysters are set in this manner, it is referred to as “spat-on-shell” (SOS), and oftentimes many oysters will set on a single shell, creating a complex reef structure as they grow larger. These reef oysters are not meant to be harvested, but rather to help enhance the wild oyster population. Working in tandem with our Back to the Bays Shell Recycling Program, we will be continuing to expand our SOS Reef in our sanctuary, and in other designated areas within Southampton Town waters in 2024.
Eelgrass Restoration:
Our 5 acre Stewardship Site off of Tiana Bayside serves as a designated sanctuary for shellfish and eelgrass. We have seen some of our most successful restoration results in NY waters at this location, enabling us to significantly expand the natural meadow within this area through a multitude of restoration practices. Both our adult shoot transplant “tortilla” method, and our Buoy Deployed seeding method have yielded great success and we continue to conduct this work annually to ensure the eelgrass meadows continues to expand and serve as essential habitat to our commercially and recreationally important finfish and shellfish species. The meadow also serves an important coastal resiliency function, and functions as a Blue Carbon zone in our bay.
Key Partners + Funders
Southampton Town has been an incredible supporter of the expansion of shellfish and habitat restoration work at this site. Through a grant made from the Southampton Town Community Preservation Fund in 2020, extensive work to expand shellfish nursery operations at Tiana Bayside has been made possible. This funding has also supported the eelgrass restoration plantings and buoy deployed seeding operations underway to build back essential marine habitat to our local waters. The Town recently approved a second CPF grant for $170,000 that will enable us to continue efforts at this site in 2024!
The support of the Town Supervisor, Town Board, and Community Preservation Department have been key to the success of efforts underway at this Stewardship Site. The Southampton Town Trustees and Parks and Recreation Department have also played an important role in the work being conducted at Tiana Bayside Facility and in the adjacent Back to the Bays Sanctuary Site that will be the long term receiving area of shellfish and eelgrass plantings for years to come.
Additionally, Rooted Hospitality Group which includes area restaurants Cowfish, Rumba, Flora, and Fauna have been an important community partner to the Back to the Bays Initiative for the past 5 years. The monetary and staff volunteer support they have provided to our horseshoe crab monitoring network, SPAT Program, Marine Meadows Initiative in addition to hosting our ArtSEA Nights and Back to the Bays Day has leveraged an impressive amount of support and awareness that enables our work at this site to continue and expand each year.
Involvement + Giving Opportunities
We are excited to engage with the Hampton Bays community, and offer many ways for individuals and groups to get involved!
Tiana Stewardship Sessions : Join us as we offer weekly Stewardship Sessions that are free and open to the public on June-September. Check out our schedule and register here, or contact our Volunteer Coordinator Hazel Wodehouse to learn more at hew57@cornell.edu.
Shell Cleaning and Bagging: to prepare for SOS setting, clean shells will be poured into mesh bags and tied securely. They will then be stacked in the remote setting tank and allowed to condition in the water prior to adding the larvae.
Oyster Reef Deployment: bags of SOS will be transported to the Reef Restoration Site. A group of volunteers will be needed to paddle out to our Sanctuary Site and gently place the SOS in the water in a reef formation.
Marine Meadows Workshops: Want to help us restore underwater eelgrass meadows? No SCUBA diving necessary, we leave that to our team, but we do have land based opportunities to help us stuff seed bags, and assemble planting discs so
Coastal Plant Nursery Stewards: As we continue to expand our coastal plant nursery by propagating beach grass and other coastal native for restoration projects we are always looking for extra hands to help! We also have several demonstration garden plans in the works that will require volunteer support to maintain so please contact Marine Meadows Program Manager Kim Manzo at kp92@cornell.edu if you’d like to learn more!
Horseshoe Crab Monitoring: Tiana Bayside Facility is a host location of the NYS Horseshoe Crab Monitoring site. Each year from May-July we have thousands of horseshoe crabs come up on our shores at this site to spawn, and we engage the public in important citizen science data collection and tagging activities. New volunteers always welcome, visit the official sign up page here.
In order to expand upon these efforts in 2024 and beyond we have launched the Tiana Bayside Back to the Bays Giving Campaign and are seeking contributions on any level to help support this work. To scale up the oyster reef efforts, and expand the Back to the Bays Stewardship Site activities to include additional shellfish restoration plantings and eelgrass restoration we need your help! Contributions of fully tax deductible and can be made by clicking DONATE at the top of this page!