Innovative Conservation Deal Protects Underwater Acres

By Cat Lazaroff

LONG ISLAND, New York, October 23, 2002 (ENS) - An oyster company has donated 11,500 acres along the bottom of the Great South Bay to The Nature Conservancy in the largest transaction of its kind in history. The unusual deal is an example of a new approach to marine conservation, one with the potential to restore marine habitat, improve water quality and protect many critical plant and animal species along the coastline of the United States and in marine areas around the world.

Bluepoints Oyster Company has donated the underwater property near Long Island, valued at about $2 million, to the Conservancy. The company will retain the right to harvest oysters from the tract, but other fishing companies will likely be kept out of the newly created underwater nature preserve, which will be managed for research, education, restoration and sustainable harvest.

"We'll be able to boast that our famous Bluepoints Long Island oysters are being raised in the middle of a nature preserve," explained Robert Nimkoff, senior vice president for seafood management at the First Republic Corporation of America, which owns the Bluepoints Company.

A view of the edge of the Great South Bay with the shore of Smith Point County Park in the foreground. (Photo © J.N. Ozarski/The Nature Conservancy)

"Our marine and coastal ecosystems are under increasing threat," said Steve McCormick, president of The Nature Conservancy. "The increase in threat calls for an increase in innovative solutions, solutions like using a hallmark of the Conservancy's work - land acquisition - in a brand new way."

The Great South Bay acquisition is the Conservancy's most recent and biggest effort to expand land acquisition to marine conservation. The Conservancy has two other pieces of underwater property in Virginia and New York, and tidal zone land in Washington state.

The Conservancy is also involved in community projects in North Carolina and New York, where the organization is working with local partners to use submerged land and shellfish restoration to protect and restore critical marine habitat, improve water quality and enhance local communities' economies and quality of life.

On Monday, The Nature Conservancy released a new report, "Leasing and Restoration of Submerged Lands." The report explores the potential for buying or leasing property underwater as a novel marine conservation strategy, particularly the concept of coupling the acquisition or leasing of submerged lands with the restoration of shellfish populations.

"For a long time conservationists simply assumed it wasn't possible to buy the bottom of the ocean, but in fact every coastal state has submerged lands available for lease or acquisition," said Mike Beck, acting director of the Conservancy's marine initiative and the team leader on the report. "As far as we know, the Conservancy is the first conservation organization to use leases or ownership strategies, which have been used by oil and aquaculture business interests, for marine conservation purposes instead."

The Great South Bay project is the latest example of the application of these new marine conservation tools. There will be at least four components of the planned management of the program: restoration, research and education, sustainable aquaculture, and the creation of a nature sanctuary.

The acquisition of the Bluepoints property is part of a larger effort to protect and restore the entire 120 mile coastal system of Long Island's South Shore. (Photo courtesy The Nature Conservancy)

Despite being part a major population center that subjects it to stresses from development and recreational use, The Nature Conservancy believes that if the natural processes of the system are sustained, it can continue to function and support a rich variety of plants and animals.

The current project, which covers 30 percent of the Great South Bay, is being developed and run by an interdisciplinary team of experts from outside agencies and organizations working to create a more sustainable model for managing marine resources. Partners in the project include the Bluepoints Oyster Company, which donated the underwater property; State University of New York's marine science division; Cornell Cooperative Extension; Town of Brookhaven; and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.

"It is hoped that what we learn and create here will be used to influence and inform the management of other waters - on Long Island and in other coastal areas around the world," said Paul Rabinovitch, executive director of the Conservancy's Long Island program.

The Nature Conservancy report, "Leasing and Restoration of Submerged Lands," is available at: http://nature.org/files/lease_sub_lands.pdf