News & Events

Long Pond Greenbelt Watermill New York photo
Photo courtesy of Friends of the Long Pond Greenbelt
Jim Grimes Deputy Clerk of the East Hampton Town Trustees
East Hampton Town Trustee Deputy Clerk Jim Grimes of Montauk The Montauk Friends of Erin Parade will take place on Sunday, March 26th! Leading the parade as the 61st Grand Marshal will be our own Deputy Clerk of the Trustees, Jim Grimes! “The @montaukfriendsoferin are thrilled to announce that Jim Grimes has agreed to do us the honor of leading this year’s Montauk St. Patrick’s Day parade as our 61st Grand Marshal. Jim is a lifelong Montauk native, East Hampton Town Trustee, long-time member of the Montauk Fire Department, and a legacy Grand Marshal, as his father Vinnie Grimes held
"Harpooning a Whale" oil painting by Anton Otto Fischer New Bedford Whaling Museum
Join East Hampton Town Trustee and Chair of the Education Committee of the Amagansett Station, David Cataletto, for the first event of the season on Friday, March 31st, 2023 at 7PM. “Harpooning a Whale” oil painting by Anton Otto Fischer in the New Bedford Whaling Museum Charles H. Lagerbom Long before Sag Harbor whaling ships crisscrossed the globe in search of “black gold” there was the earlier heyday of shore whaling. This is the history of that forgotten era when whales were spotted from our beaches, then hunted in small boats. Shore whaling was East Hampton’s first major industry that
Bay scallops Photo Jon Diat EH Star
Bay Scallops Photo Jon Diat – East Hampton Star Since 2019, consecutive summer mass die-offs of bay scallops in the Peconic Estuary on Long Island, New York, have led to the collapse of the bay scallop fishery in New York and the declaration of a federal fishery disaster, with landings down more than 99 percent. This study led by Stony Brook School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS) graduate, Stephen Tomasetti, currently visiting assistant professor of environmental studies at Hamilton College, and Stony Brook University Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation Christopher Gobler and a collaborative team of researchers reveals that
Accabonac Harbor at salt-marsh
Submitted by Molly Graffam, PhD and Ron Paulsen, PG of Coastline Evaluation Corp. / Cornell Cooperative Extension / Marine Program December 22, 2022 Accabonac Harbor Springs Photo Susan McGraw-Keber The report is focused on Northwest Accabonac Harbor – Phase 1. Phase 1 Report
Commercial dock at Montauk Harbor Photo Christine Sampson
Montauk Harbor, Commercial Dock. Photo Christine Sampson. The American Rescue Plan Act was passed in March of 2022. Councilman David Lys was instrumental in seeing that funds would be provided to Montauk’s commercial fishing fleet to help with onshore storage of their gear. The East Hampton Town board voted unanimously to provide the funds—$70,000 to Montauk for gear storage, from the eventual sum of $2.34 million allocated directly to the Town. Funds come from a program established to help businesses as a result of lost revenue during the pandemic- “Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund.” The full East Hampton
Photo: A piping plover and chicks. (Kaiti Titherington/USFWS) Piping plovers have been endangered since the 1980s because of increased public use of the beaches these shorebirds nest on, and because of additional predators. Coastal states have worked to conserve the birds — educating beachgoers, installing fencing and closing some parks during breeding season to protect their habitat. In the mid-1980s, there were fewer than 800 pairs along the Atlantic Coast. Today, there are about 2,000 pairs, distributed unevenly. More at whyy.org
Study of scallop heartbeat and heat waves
By using a combination of satellite temperature and long-term environmental records, field and laboratory experiments, and measurements of scallop heartbeat rates, researchers determined the outcome. (Courtesy Stony Brook School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences graduate Stephen Tomasetti, PhD.) EAST END, NY — A new study indicates what many have long feared: The die-off of the beloved Peconic Bay scallops in local waters is likely caused by warming waters and heat waves. The study, commenced by Stony Brook University researchers and published in Global Change Biology, indicated that global warming has contributed to the loss of bay scallops. By Lisa Finn – Patch
Support for the change of name to our scholarship fund by The East Hampton Star is in this week’s edition. The Trustees wish to thank David Rattray and the editorial staff for giving a nod to an important and timely issue. Many thanks to David and Donnamarie Barnes of @plainsightproject.org, Dr. Georgette Grier-Key of Eastville Community Society in Sag Harbor, and Assemblyman Fred J. Thiele. The East Hampton Town Trustees are to be congratulated for changing the name of their annual scholarship. After being alerted by the Plain Sight Project, which studies slavery and its legacies on the East End,
Breaching Right whale Photo NOAA
Right Whale Breaching. Photo NOAA. Environmental and fishing groups said Tuesday there is “no evidence” that site preparation work for offshore wind farms in New Jersey and New York is responsible for a spate of whale deaths in the two states. Anjuli Ramos-Buscot, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club chapter in Atlantic City, N.J. Photo AP/ Wayne Perry. Anjuli Ramos-Buscot, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club chapter in Atlantic City N.J. January 17, 2023 with environmental groups in support of the offshore wind farm project as misinformation about the safety of whales is being compromised and to blame
North Atlantic Whale mother with her calf
North Atlantic Right Whale with her calf Photo Courtesy of NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is a government agency that offers an abundance of information about North Atlantic Right Whales and other marine species in our ocean waters. Below are links of interest about the endangered Right Whale, how NOAA monitors their migrational patterns and serves to inform mariners of their presence to avoid vessel strikes, the most common cause of their deaths. The public is able to sign up for reports from NOAA delivered to your email. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/north-atlantic-right-whale https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USNOAAFISHERIES/bulletins/3433ccc https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/north-atlantic-right-whale
Accabonac Harbor skiff with fishermen
Accabonac Harbor Photo Susan McGraw-Keber Deputy Clerk Bill Taylor spoke to the Trustees about the need to dredge Accabonac Harbor due to the winter storm that blew in just before the holiday season rendering it difficult for boaters and fishermen to navigate off Louse Point due to the sand spit that was created. During the organizational meeting on January 9th, the Trustees voted to retain the services of East Hampton engineer Drew Bennett to assist in procuring an emergency dredging permit from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, (DEC). The Trustees were notified of the sand spit issue

Statement from Orsted Regarding Mooring System in Use

“As part of the fish monitoring study outlined in the SFW Fisheries Study Work Plan, the Stony Brook University team is conducting a regular visit to the sensor array off Wainscott today to collect data from sensors, replace batteries, and deploy new retrievable moorings alongside the previous moorings. As the Stony Brook team is deploying new moorings alongside the existing moorings there’s no change to the mariners briefing, our standard method for updating mariners on the presence of equipment in navigational waters. Members of the fisheries outreach team, in collaboration with the research team, have worked with the fishing community to select an alternative mooring, one that is smaller, lightweight and retrievable, and is more compatible with commercial fishing in response to the feedback we’ve received from the community on original deployment of cement moorings.”

Images of the mooring system and a diagram are shown below.


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