Suffolk County Police Marine Bureau officers and two good Samaritans rescued a man who nearly drowned in Port Jefferson on Sunday, June 21.
Alan Goldberg was attempting to anchor a boat on Whitehall Beach when he lost his footing and became unresponsive in the water at approximately 2:30 p.m. Two good Samaritans on the beach, Frances George and Karl George, performed CPR until Marine Bureau Officers Cory Kim and Shane Parker arrived on scene and transferred Goldberg onto Marine Delta.
The officers, with the assistance of Frances George and Karl George, continued CPR while transporting Goldberg, 70, of Coram, to the Port Jefferson Boat Ramp. He was transferred to a waiting ambulance and taken to St. Charles Hospital in Port Jefferson with serious injuries.
Frances George, 30, and Karl George, 65, both of East Setauket, were not injured.
Members from the Town of Brookhaven, the Setauket Harbor Task Force and other environmental groups headed out on two boats last week to harvest a potentially new aquatic crop — sugar kelp.
On Thursday, May 20, after a several-months-long process of preparing, planting and harvesting, volunteers joined Brookhaven bay constables out of Port Jefferson Harbor to head slightly west in retrieving the brown native seaweed that was brought to two labs for study.
The project was spearheaded by nonprofit The Moore Family Charitable Foundation — a community involvement group that helps with projects throughout Long Island and the five boroughs.
“Our main goal for this year is to spread the word about kelp and where it grows, the conditions it needs, how to process it and how it can benefit growers on Long Island,” Wendy Moore, benefactor and manager of the sugar kelp project, previously told TBR News Media.
According to the foundation’s lead scientist David Berg, sugar kelp is known to be edible for both people and pets, it can be used as a fertilizer, bioplastic, biofuel, cosmetics and is a method to help improve water quality.
Collaborating with the Town of Brookhaven, the Setauket Harbor Task Force, the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University and Cornell Cooperative Extension, it took a large group of different people to implement a crop that could become a big deal on Long Island.
Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) said that when he became supervisor, he immediately knew he wanted to lease out the town’s bays and harbors for projects like this.
“Not only clams and oysters, but also for things like kelp, which is tremendous,” he said. “And seaweed. I think that we can start an industry and stimulate it to become a major industry.”
In December, the task force dropped mooring anchors and set up the kelp growing field’s area in Setauket Harbor. In January, members attached the kelp seedlings to a line just under the surface of the water between buoys there.
George Hoffman, a trustee of the task force which helped oversee the sugar kelp cultivation and production, said partnerships like this are critical to get stuff done.
“We’re really thankful to the partnership,” he said. “Between the town and the harbor group, we wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing if we didn’t have that partnership. It’s just a great example of how government works with citizens groups.”
Nestled in the water between Port Jefferson and Setauket, more than 200 pounds worth of sugar kelp was retrieved.
Along with being a sustainable crop, sugar kelp helps take in excess nitrogen and CO2 from harbor waters, improving its chemistry. Hoffman said that excess nitrogen causes harmful algae bloom and excess CO2, resulting in ocean acidification.
“Removing nitrogen and CO2 from the waterways is absolutely critical,” Romaine added. “So, [sugar kelp] shows a lot of promise — and if you worry about methane gas, cows eat this when they feed and have 80% less gas.”
Town Councilman Jonathan Kornreich (D-Stony Brook) joined on the boat, lifting up bags of kelp to weigh. He said that projects like this not only help the environment, but can also make positive changes in the private sector in the future.
“To me this is the way that government should operate,” he said. “We make investments like this, into scientific research, or ways to develop either materials, or crops or techniques that can have a positive impact on things.”
Eventually, he said, a private sector can take over and make a business out of the crop.
“Government has a role in helping to get that started and making those investments in science,” he said.
Romaine said that Brookhaven has the largest waterfront of any town on the Island. In Port Jefferson, the area surrounding the harbor where the kelp was harvested goes back to the village’s original roots.
“We’re looking around and asking, ‘What could be the new industry for our town? What could give it life? What could be productive? How could we help nature to save clams, oysters, seaweed, kelp?’” he said. “Those industries are the future that we have to be visionary enough to support and to put the muscle of town government behind it.”
Dawn Olenick of Baiting Hollow captured this amazing photo on Feb. 6 in Port Jefferson. She writes, ‘Just made it down to Port for the sunset. It was awesome weather and this [horizon] just kickstarted the weekend for me. Mother Nature sets the stage and I just snap it!
Rendering of the planned Sunrise Wind headquarters located at 22 Research Way in East Setauket. Photo by Sunrise Wind
Though it still requires formal agreements with local government, the Sunrise Wind offshore wind farm project is talking specifics on landfall for its electrical lines, adding even more emphasis on Brookhaven town.
Sunrise Wind now plans to make landfall at Smith Point before going up William Floyd Parkway to connect to the Holtsville Substation. Image by Sunrise Wind
Sunrise Wind plans to create a 110-turbine, 880-megawatt wind farm 30 miles off the coast of Montauk. During an online community open house Nov. 16, representatives of the project, which is being duel-headed by Denmark-based Ørsted and East Coast-based Eversource, explained plans for having the electrical lines make landfall at the parking lot of Smith Point County Park on the South Shore. Those lines would then feed under the Smith Point Bridge and then under William Floyd Parkway.
The cables will extend north beneath the William Floyd Parkway for 3.8 miles, crossing under the Long Island Rail Road tracks before going west toward the Holtsville electrical substation.
A complete construction and operations plan will be made available in 2021, according to Sunrise Wind reps. The project could be operational as soon as 2024, as long as current timelines hold.
Ken Bowes, vice president of offshore wind siting and permitting for Sunrise, said they do not currently have a formal agreement with either Suffolk County, which owns Smith Point County Park and William Floyd Parkway, or the Town of Brookhaven for its roadways the underground electrical cables will need to use with the electrical substation. He said they look to have two formal agreements “that will compensate each fairly for the use of the facilities” in the near future.
“The town — we’ll hopefully be partners with them for the next 20 years,” he said.
The project has touted the Port Jefferson and Setauket areas as its main base of operations once the wind turbines are operational. Town Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) told TBR News Media last month that Sunrise Wind had purchased a site in East Setauket as its main office space, which is also to be used as a training center for the people who service the turbines.
This empty building located at 22 Research Way in East Setauket could be Sunrise Wind’s new office site, as well as a training center for those meant to go out on boats to work on the offshore wind project. Photo by Kyle Barr
Sunrise Wind released a statement saying the nearly 60,000-square foot, multi-purpose Research Way facility will house members of the permanent staff of Sunrise Wind and South Fork Wind, among other teams, including positions such as technician, warehouse coordinator, contract manager, head of site, and other offshore and onshore jobs. The facility will be renovated to include custom office and warehouse space to handle marine coordination, contract and site management, as well as spare parts storage, among other activities.
Workers and equipment will be loaded and unloaded on its over-260-foot repair vessel at a special dock to be constructed in Port Jefferson Harbor.
“The deep-water harbor in Port Jefferson, combined with the talent pool and resources on Long Island, make the area ideally-suited to serve as a regional O&M hub for our Northeast offshore wind farms,” Ørsted Offshore North America’s Head of Operations, Mikkel Maehlisen said. “We’re eager to begin our work there and become members of the local community.”
Assemblyman Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), who originally proposed to the offshore wind corporations that Port Jeff be used as a home base for Sunrise Wind, said he was “delighted that Ørsted and Eversource have decided to strategically locate their Sunrise Wind Operations and Maintenance center near both the deep-water harbor that is Port Jefferson and the School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at Stony Brook University.”
Concept art for Michael Manning’s scultpure which village officials plan to put in Rocketship Park. Port Jeff Mayor Margot Garant said the crab could become a symbol for the village. Image from Manning’s proposal
The crab and the sea turtle, both species harmed by trash in the oceans, could be coming to Port Jeff to represent its beachfront and to remind visitors of the importance of protecting the oceans.
The sea turtle scultpure designed by Nobuho Nagasawa is expected to be placed in Harborfront Park. Exact location is still to be determined. Photo from Nagasawa’s proposal
Two sculptures, one of each animal, are slated to come into the village courtesy of two artists, one with decades of experience, the other just beginning his artistic career.
Village of Port Jefferson trustees voted Nov. 2 to appropriate a total of $2,600 from the Farmers Market and Maritime Festival trust accounts to purchase the rights to the designs for the two sculptures. The pieces are designed to be filled with debris people might find on the beach to illustrate visually what is needed to keep both beaches and local waters clean. A similar statue was installed at Sunken Meadow State Park in Kings Park last year. (For more info, search “Shelley the Sea Turtle” at tbrnewsmedia.com.)
Village trustee Rebecca Kassay, who has a background in environmental activism, started work alongside other local leaders before she became trustee in September. She said she, Mayor Margot Garant and PJ resident Karen Levitov had seen some examples of these sculptures all over the world, and thought Port Jefferson, as a harborfront community, needed one as well.
“We thought, ‘How cool would it be to have a unique version in Port Jeff?’” Kassay said. “They’re functional — they’re empowering people not just to recycle, but be more conscious.”
One of the sculptures, also made to resemble a sea turtle, is designed by renowned artist Nobuho Nagasawa, a professor at Stony Brook University. Plans give two options for the turtle, one where the shell can be lifted and the trash dropped in, and another with the shell as a wire mesh. In her design document, Nagasawa said the artwork is inspired by “the wonderment of life in the ocean which is in danger.” The sculpture is destined for Harborfront Park.
Nagasaawa, with years of experience in the art world, said it was good training for artists only just coming into their own. The professor worked with Port Jefferson in helping the village format the request for qualification, which allowed them to establish what kind of cost estimates they were looking at.
The second sculpture, which the village hopes to install in Rocketship Park, resembles a giant crab, its pincers held up to the sky. SBU Undergraduate student Michael Manning wrote in his proposal that a crab is defensive, tenacious and can persevere, making it a great example to express the work to protect local waters. The crab’s thorax is a cage-like design, with one part made to hold trash and the other to hold bottles. Garant said they are looking to get the high school’s environmental club involved in designing a placard to go along with the sculpture.
“The crab was something we thought the kids could definitely get involved with,” she said. “We imagine the crab could become — like the horse is to Saratoga — the crab could be to Port Jefferson.”
Michael Manning
Unlike other sculptures and pieces Nagasawa has worked on, even ones that had an interactive element, the professor said this was the first project where function was the main driving force. It was an interesting challenge for students, and now that Manning’s piece was chosen, the SBU art professor said she’s looking for the young artist, with some guidance from her, to carry through on the responsibility for getting the project completed. Her bigger hope is that the village considers even more such student art pieces in the future.
“I really appreciate the village trusted the students’ ability to make this proposal,” she said. “Students normally have very little chance of doing something like this, and I hope this can turn into something much bigger.”
Levitov, SBU’s Paul W. Zuccaire gallery director and curator, helped get the ball rolling with her connections to SBU’s artists. This project also dovetailed with an exhibition she was planning on environmental art.
Levitov said all the projects the committee received were “wonderful,” adding “the students were really innovative in their approaches — animal forms, glacial and nautical shapes, and baskets inspired by Native American weaving were all considered. “
“My hope is that this collaboration will lead to future opportunities for creative partnerships between Stony Brook University and the surrounding communities,” she said.
The 11 submissions were adjudicated by a committee that included Kassay, Garant and Levitov, as well as Lisa Perry, president of Port Jefferson Harbor Education & Arts Conservancy, and Port Jefferson Conservation Advisory Committee member Dreania LeVine. A decision was made on the two designs Oct. 26. They also gave an honorable mention to SBU student Marta Baumiller.
Kassay said the village is currently looking to work with Environmental Sculptures, a company that specializes in such designs and is responsible for the Sunken Meadow sculpture as well. The next step, the trustee said, is to apply for some environmental grants for the projects. Kassay added with her experience she expects it won’t be too difficult to acquire grants from for such projects, as they tick off “a lot of boxes.”
The trustee put the tentative date of fall 2021 for fabrication of the two sculptures.
Volunteers for the Setauket Harbor Task Force have monitored the health of Port Jefferson Harbor for the past three years. Photo by Kyle Barr
What does it take to monitor the health of your local waterways? For the people who month after month do just that, all it takes is a love for the place one lives.
The Setauket Harbor Task Force was one of the most active of the 22 groups involved with Save the Sound and its bay water recording initiative. The immense amount of work is taken up by a squad of volunteers, some of whom have been active during the May through October months of the last three years.
Laurie Vetere and George Hoffman, co-founders of the Setauket Harbor Task Force, discuss this year’s findings compared to two years ago. Photo by Kyle Barr
The Setauket Harbor Task Force originated as a way to monitor the health of what they considered the lone “orphaned” bay on the North Shore, but their activities eventually spread over the border into Port Jefferson as well. While the task force originated in 2015 to help maintain the local waterways’ wellbeing, in 2018 the group joined the United Water Study program under the EPA’s Long Island Sound Study, and since then has done monitoring in 10 different locations in Port Jeff and Setauket harbors.
Hoffman, of the task force, said they have dedicated much of their time and energy to the project, especially maintaining rigorous scientific standards. They have gone out in foggy mornings where you could barely see a few feet in front of the boat. Once, their craft’s engine stopped working, and they had to be towed back to harbor. There have been times their small craft has rolled in early morning swells, but they keep on going.
“With climate and environment, there’s so little that most people can do,” he said. “Every day you read about a new thing — ice shelves melting, whales being beached … I find when I talk to volunteers, it’s just being able to do something.”
Every participating organization must take readings of the water twice a month, no less than 10 days apart. Because monitoring must be performed three hours before sunrise, volunteers are up well before dawn, getting into the small craft and wading out into the harbors. Their recording instrument, a sonde meter that records all manor of water quality metrics, costs close to $20,000.
Steve Antos, one of the task force board members, also owns Setauket Landscape Design. Though he and others in his group have lived in the area for decades, the idea of water quality has really taken a hold on many of its participants. Antos enjoys constructing rain gardens in his regular job, which are critical for preventing water runoff flowing from people’s yards down toward the Sound.
“In the past, everyone tried to get their properties to drain onto the road … and eventually it just runs into our bays and takes all the pollution and dog waste with it,” Antos said. “A lot of it is way beyond our control, but whatever we can do, just little things, it all adds up.”
Before working with the task force, many of the 10 or so volunteers wouldn’t have known what most of the readings, from the chlorophyll levels or turbidity (the water clarity) meant, but now have become a kind of citizen scientist, able to comprehend measurements using a very technical device. Their backgrounds range from a retired veterinarian to retired teachers, but what brings them together is their long time proximity to the bays and waterways of the North Shore. It’s what drove them to want to make sure the water was being maintained.
Tom Lyon, of Mount Sinai, and Mark Smith, of East Setauket, are the boat captains, and have lent their experience and water crafts to the project. They are small runabouts, one an 18-foot and the other 16.
Nancy Goldstein, herself a trained scuba diver, got into the project thanks to a friend and has been active for three years.
“I took marine biology in high school, but I’m totally not a scientist,” Goldstein said. “I care about the earth, and the marine — it’s all one.”
Bert Conover, a retired veterinarian from Port Jeff, said he has always been on the water “from Delaware River to Ocean City.” Long ago, he majored in chemistry and biology, but went to grad school for zoology and then went on to veterinarian school.
“Now that I’m retired it gives me a chance to give back,” he said. “And hopefully the data will redirect how to approach a healthy harbor.”
Alice Leser has lived in Stony Brook for 49 years, and is a life-long Long Islander. She has taught programs about Long Island waters as a teacher and alongside fellow environmentalists at the Long Island Museum. When three years ago the task force offered her a training program at the Village Center, she snapped up the opportunity.
“I’ve been surrounded by water my entire life,” she said. “I’ve canoeed all the rivers, and I’ve taught programs about Long Island waters, so I really care about the purity of the water.”
Laurie Vetere, the fellow co-founder of the task force, said they have not had anyone drop out in three years.
“When we first started this program, we found that we had more volunteers than we needed,” Vetere said. “People are attracted to the water.”
Hoffman agreed, saying there is something about Long Islanders and their connection to their coasts.
“Long Islanders are coastal people,” he said. “I think what keeps us on Long Island is we all have a love for the water.”
Jamie Vaudrey, a professor of marine science at the University of Connecticut, detailed the issues with multiple Long Island bays across the North Shore. The main issues are nitrogen and how well a bay flushes. Photo by Kyle Barr
A new report by a regional environmental nonprofit says a little under half of all bays on either side of the Long Island Sound were given a poor-to-failing grade. It’s a continuing problem, but more and more local groups are stepping up to dedicate their time and energy to trying to maintain the water as a strong habitat.
At a press conference Tuesday, Oct. 6, Save the Sound, a Connecticut-based environmental nonprofit funded by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant, released its biennial 2020 Long Island Sound Report Card that described the general health of 50 bays from Long Island and Connecticut based on the previous year’s data.
Click on the above link to see the grading of the entire Long Island Sound.
Officials and experts revealed that, of those monitored, Suffolk County North Shore harbors were largely better off than those in Connecticut, but several still had issues. Port Jefferson, at least the outer and middle portions of the harbor, was ranked in the top 10 most healthy, with experts saying it most likely has to do with how well the harbor flushes daily.
Meanwhile sites like Northport and Centerport harbors were ranked C- and C respectively. Northport Harbor received a F grade for its excess of chlorophyll, a measurement of how much microalgae is in the water, and its low level of dissolved oxygen, an important factor for the health of fish. Centerport had similar difficulties, but also had issues of excessive seaweed accumulation.
Perhaps the most concerning of North Shore Suffolk County’s waterways was the innermost part of Cold Spring Harbor which received F grades in chlorophyll, seaweed and dissolved oxygen.
U.S. Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-NY3) and Lee Zeldin (R-NY1) were both present to offer their support of bipartisan funding for this and future studies as well as initiatives to keep local bays clean. Suozzi said in the past four years, the Long Island Sound Caucus has extended the EPA Long Island Sound program to 2023 and increased the $4 million appropriated to the Sound to $21 million. The House has already passed a bill to up that to $30 million, but has not yet been taken up by the Senate.
Zeldin said the low grades of so many bays only emphasizes the need for more federal funding for further studies and additional relief.
“Working across the aisle and across the Sound, we’ve made great progress in preserving this critical waterway, but with nearly half of the waterways measured in this report as receiving a D grade or below, there’s still work to do,” he said.
George Hoffman, a co-founder of the Setauket Harbor Task Force that monitors Port Jeff, also acknowledged a great deal of why the bay has done comparatively well is because of its flushing capacity. Another factor, he said, may be the hundreds of thousands of oysters and shellfish the Town of Brookhaven seeds into the bay. The shellfish do a great job of filtering organic particulates from the water.
U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi said the Long Island Sound Study needs more federal funding. Photo by Kyle Barr
Save The Sound’s Unified Water Study program includes 22 organizations covering 50 harbors on both sides of the waterway. Monitoring begins in May and ends in October. The study also looks at the general health state of the Sound itself. It’s long been clear that the closer one is to New York City, the less healthy the water is. The Western Narrows portion of the Sound received an F grade on all marks, while the Eastern Narrows, which runs from Northport to the edge of Hempstead Bay, received a C grade overall. Areas to the east were reported as much healthier in general.
Jamie Vaudrey, an assistant research professor of marine science at the University of Connecticut, said likely the biggest factor for the health of bays in a modern environment is how well the water flushes in and out of the harbor. Water like that trapped into the southernmost tip of Cold Spring Harbor is more impacted by any real increase in nitrogen.
“They just have this large nitrogen burden coming in that’s not being flushed out,” she said. “In systems like that, really pushing down that nitrogen load is important.”
Nitrogen has been called public enemy No. 1 for coastal waters as it’s the leading cause of hypoxia, namely low or depleted oxygen causing major problems for marine life. This can cause fish or other sea creatures to die off and lead to an excess of seaweed or algae. Some of these algal blooms have even been dangerous to animals or humans.
Though Port Jefferson Harbor’s general health was rated high, it too has experienced its share of dangerous algal blooms, including a so-called rust tide back in 2018. Though this specific bloom doesn’t present a threat to human beings, it kills fish quite rapidly. Those who study water quality have become very concerned with how often these blooms have appeared since the early 2000s.
For some of the struggling bays in the Town of Huntington, New York State Sen. Jim Gaughran (D-Northport) called for a funding stream from the federal government on down that can really start to make a dent in Suffolk County’s lack of sewage treatment facilities and get the ball rolling on nitrogen-reducing septic systems, which individually can cost a homeowner $10,000 to $15,000 apiece without government funding.
“People can’t do that on their own — we need tax credits, we need funding,” he said.
Maria Hoffman of East Setauket snapped this photo on July 18. She writes, ‘I was on the harborside beach of Port Jeff Harbor’s western headland just south of the inlet. As I scanned the busy Saturday harbor, the bright bold colors of the spinnaker sail caught my eye.As the boat moved toward Port Jeff Village I realized that the striped sail would soon pass by the stacks with their candy striping and just waited for the moment.’
Brian Murphy, the captain of the Ginny Marie, brought his schooner into Port Jefferson this past week. Photo by Kyle Barr
The 39-foot schooner Ginny Marie has made its temporary home in Port Jefferson, leaving another tally for community members, officials and historians trying to bring in tall ships to the historic harbor.
The Ginny Marie at dock. Photo by Kyle Barr
Captain of the Ginny Marie, Brian Murphy, is a Northport resident and retired Stony Brook University Hospital nurse of 16 years. He said he wanted to bring in this boat to share his love of being out on the water at the mercy of the wind.
“I just want to thank everyone, bring people out and sail,” Murphy said. “I love people, and I love bringing attention on the boat.”
The type of schooner design dates back to William Atkin in 1927. This more modern version of those vessels started being built in the 1980s, but it wasn’t until 18 years later that the Ginny Marie actually launched. Other than a more modern countertop, the boat builders wanted much of it to be without current technologies and amenities.
Other than that, a number of interesting pieces dot the ship’s design. Behind the boat’s wheel stands a binnacle, a “museum piece,” Murphy said. The cleats, or the anvil-shaped devices to which the ropes are tied, are shaped like alligators, dragons are carved into the end of the flagstaff and the vessel even includes an old, verdigris-covered belaying pin from the Shanty, an Atkin-designed vessel.
“It took them 18 years to do this, and you end up with a very unique boat,” the Ginny Marie captain said.
The two-masted schooner is allowed six passengers and a crew, which currently includes Murphy and a fellow seaman who’s training aboard. The dimensions include the 39-feet on deck, plus an 8-foot bowspirit. It weighs 16 tons with an 11.5-foot beam, a 6-foot draft and a 34-foot waterline.
Chris Ryon, Port Jeff village historian and member of the Tall Ship Committee, said they will continue to bring more ships into the harbor. Last year brought in multiple crafts, including the historical 120-foot Amistad and much smaller Lady Maryland.
“I’m so happy to have a schooner here,” Ryon said. “Port Jefferson deserves a schooner.”
The Ginny Marie is moored at the dock next to Harborfront Park for people to see and potentially speak to its captain. The boat is expecting to host small charters at $55 a head, six people at a time for two hours, three times a day.
What’s the best thing about sailing?
“The best part about sailing is you get off the dock, you hoist those sails and you’re gone,” Murphy said.
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