Carole Brennan, second from right, the East Hampton Town clerk, conducted the swearing-in of members of the town trustees and Cate Rogers, right, the new member of the town board, at Town Hall on Friday. Photo: Christopher Walsh January 2, 2022 – Town Hall The East Hampton Star : January 6, 2022 By Christopher Walsh Continuity was on the agenda when the East Hampton Town Trustees selected officers and staff during their organizational meeting on Monday night. Eight of the nine incumbent trustees were re-elected in November, and six of them, plus the newly elected trustee, were in attendance at Monday’s
Trustee Mike Martinsen with a strand of Kelp grown in local waters. Photo courtesy of East Magazine, a publication of the East Hampton Star. On December 7, 2021, Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation S.6532A/A7547A into law. This legislation allows Suffolk County to lease underwater lands for the purpose of Kelp and other seaweed cultivation. One hundred ten thousand (110,000) acres of underwater land in Gardiner’s and Peconic Bays will now be permitted for kelp aquaculture use. According to the press release put out by by the Governor’s office, this legislation will “promote aquaculture in Gardiners and Peconic Bays.” The goal
Dredging Little Northwest Creek / December 2021 Photo by Tim Garneau Dredging completed, Little Northwest Creek is flowing once again into the bay waters. Photo Susan McGraw-Keber
On Monday, November 22nd, the East Hampton Town Trustees voted unanimously for a one year moratorium on all new residential docks, catwalks, floating docks, floating structures, and platforms in Trustee waters. The resolution was offered by John Aldred and seconded by Susan McGraw-Keber. For the complete Trustee Resolution #2021-11-22, click on the tab below. 2021 Dock Moratorium Resolution
Vote Is Unanimous During the moratorium, the East Hampton Town Trustees will conduct an inventory of all docks in waterways under their jurisdiction, among them Three Mile Harbor. Photo: Durell Godfrey Town Trustees Push Pause on Some Docks By Chris Walsh The East Hampton Town Trustees voted unanimously on Monday to enact a one-year moratorium on construction of docks, catwalks, floating docks, floating structures, and floating platforms in trustee waters. The moratorium, effective immediately, comes a month after the trustees voted 5-to-3 to approve construction of an 80-foot floating dock on Three Mile Harbor, the first such approval in more
Commercial Fishing Interests & Stakeholders Map of artificial reefs off the coast of Long Island, NY. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) has planned the expansions of seven existing artificial reefs and the creation of four new sites and is seeking feedback from commercial fishing interests to gain information that will help guide the future development of these sites and avoid conflicts with the commercial industry. All commercial fishing interests and stakeholders are invited to attend meetings on changes to artificial reefs in the Atlantic Ocean and Long Island Sound. Stakeholders can provide valuable information by identifying fishing locations on charts
Fall is the annual seeding of a harbor in East Hampton- and there was no better a day than on October 18th when the weather felt like a sunny summer day and the breeze was light. On this day, 25,000 oyster seedlings were distributed into Northwest Harbor that the East Hampton Shellfish Hatchery had grown to replenish the harbor with. Members of the East Hampton Middle School’s Surfrider Club and their teachers, John Ryan, Jr. and David Cataletto paddled along side the shellfish hatchery’s skiff on paddle boards, courtesy of Paddle Diva’s owner Gina Bradley with buckets of new oyster
The Gobler Lab at Stony Brook Southampton has begun using a remote controlled Surface Autonomous Vehicle (SAV) to perform real time and wide ranging monitoring of water quality parameters in East Hampton Trustee waters. Preliminary cruises of the vessel were performed in Georgica Pond on 9/29 and 10/1 (before and after opening the pond to the ocean), Three Mile Harbor on 10/8, Accabonac Harbor on 10/12 and Napeague Harbor on 10/21. Use of the SAV provides extreme fine-level spatial resolution in pond or harbor-wide readings of salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll-a and pH. Inserting the probe unit into the SAVSurface Autonomous Vehicle (SAV)Towing
The water quality of Long Island’s estuaries are impaired according to Dr. Christopher Gobler and his colleagues after examining the results of extensive testing of waters. The results are bleak and the causes are familiar—excessive delivery of nitrogen from onsite wastewater is the main cause. With warming temperatures during the summer months, harmful algae blooms (HABs) contaminate water bodies. Dr. Gobler asserts that a combination of factors contribute to the poor water quality. Climate change and excessive nitrogen that seeps into the ground and ultimately waterways, are of great concern. Predictions of more frequent and heavy rainfall is another factor
The Winning Largest Clam! Photo by Kimberly Esperian of Bennett Shellfish in Montauk On Sunday October 3rd, the Trustees held our 31st annual Largest Clam and Chowder Contest– under a brilliant blue sky and sun, it was the perfect day for the community to come together to sample “Mrs. Roman’s Bonac Clam Chowder” by Chef Paul Roman and Bostwick’s New England style clam chowder. From Stuart’s Fish and Market in Amagansett, Bennett Shellfish owners, Clint and his father “Shybo”, who shucked clams on the half shell, we had a wonderful turn-out! A first time big hit with everyone was the
The Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonalty of the Town of East Hampton stand in full support of a condemnation of the 4,000 ft. stretch of beach known as “Seaview”” that was recently awarded ownership to adjacent homeowner’s associations in February of 2021 by a ruling of the New York State Supreme Court. The more recent decision of September 14th by the New York State Court of Appeals, denied a hearing of both the Town and the Trustees motions to appeal. Despite the ruling, Supervisor Peter Van Scoyoc has vowed to aggressively pursue the right for all residents of East
The East Hampton Town Trustees joined Surfrider Foundation, Eastern Long Island — Courtney Garneau chairperson; Friends of Georgica Pond — Sara Davison and Annie Hall; Trustees Susan McGraw-Keber, Tim Garneau, and Deputy Clerk Bill Taylor; along with students, youngsters, and many volunteers for a wonderful Saturday morning beach clean up effort. Photo by Durell Godfrey.
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.
