Insights From a Bay On the Brink

Shinnecock Bay is a New York estuary that was once considered pristine, supporting robust shellfish and recreational finfish fisheries. Over the last several decades, water quality has deteriorated, and the Bay has experienced collapsed fish and shellfish populations, the steady decline of seagrass habitat, and the onset of three harmful algal bloom species. These aspects present a challenging reality for the future of the Bay. In response to this crisis, the Shinnecock Bay Restoration Program has been created to restore water quality, seagrass habitat and shellfish populations in the Bay. We present the results from two years of benthic trawling research in both the eastern and western portions of the Bay. Marginally significant differences in catch per unit effort (CPUE) of recreationally important fish species were found, with higher CPUE in the pristine eastern portion of the Bay. Shellfish predators, including the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) and mud crab (Family: Xanthidae) species were commonly caught bay-wide and there were no significant differences in their CPUE between bay side and habitat type. This survey research provides important baseline data on fish and crab populations in the Bay, which can inform ongoing and future shellfish restoration work and monitoring.