☀️ Our #fieldworkfriday brought our team back to Pipes Cove at our Greenport Stewardship Site to monitor our Seahorse Hotels that were deployed two weeks earlier!
🦀 Stay tuned to hear what our Seahorse Educator + Diver Kim Manzo saw in and around our Hotels!
#backtothebays #seahorserestoration #pipescove #greenport
Found along the East Coast of the US from Maine to Florida, Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs spend the winter months in deeper ocean waters.
In the spring, they migrate back into bays and estuaries to reproduce. Following the highest high tides, created by the gravitational pull of the Full and New Moons, they aggregate on shore by the 1000s to lay their eggs, buried in the sand.
Last night kicked off our first Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Session of the season! Join us tomorrow, Saturday, May 16, and Monday, May 18, at Tiana Bayside for our next sessions.
Become a Citizen Scientist and help us count and tag local horseshoe crabs coming to shore at night to lay their eggs!
Sign up now at link in bio.
#horseshoecrab #horseshoecrabtagging #hamptonbays #tianabay #backtothebays
🦪 RESTORATIVE OYSTER REEF 🦪
☀️ In the summer of 2025, we were joined by a dozen eager volunteers at our Tiana Bayside Facility who helped us deploy over 13,000 spat-on-shell oysters in our marine sanctuary designated by the Southampton Town Trustees.
🗓️ This marked the 4th year of reef restoration efforts at our Tiana Bayside Sanctuary – in total, we have now placed more than 200,000 spat-on-shell oysters, set on on over 100 cubic feet of recycled shell material at this site!
🌱 Annual monitoring shows that our reef clusters are thriving, creating exemplary habitat, and supporting the growth of diverse macroalgae species, which help oxygenate the water.
#backtothebays #oysterreef #marinerestoration #hamptonbays #tianabay
🌱 Blue Carbon refers to the carbon dioxide captured and stored by oceans and coastal ecosystems, such as seagrass meadows and salt marshes.
🌀 These Blue Carbon Ecosystems not only provide essential habitat for marine species and prevent coastal erosion, they also play a crucial role in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide, thereby mitigating climate change.
🌱 Eelgrass restoration is a major part of Back to the Bays work to help increase blue carbon on the East End.
Funded by and in partnership with the South Shore Estuary Reserve Program.
#backothebays #southshoreestuary #bluecarbon #bluecarbonproject #eelgrass
🌷Have you ever wanted to tour a shellfish hatchery? Learn about marine species? Touch a horseshoe crab?
📌 Join us on Saturday, June 6 from 10am - 1pm at @ccemarineprogram at Cedar Beach in Southold for a special Reef Raisers + Meadow Makers Open House!
🦪 Enjoy guided hatchery tours, explore our touch tank room, view our student art + science exhibit, learn about our Field Guide, search our facility on a self-guided scavenger hunt and more!
Register now at link in bio!
#backtothebays #northfork #southold #marinerestoration eastend
🎨 ArtSEA Create & Sip: Horseshoe Crabs: Wednesday, May 6 at 6pm
🌊 Learn about horseshoe crabs & then get creative painting a horseshoe crab molt for $35/person
Join us at @whalestale.li in Hampton Bays for a fun evening! We’ll be getting creative and learning all about horseshoe crabs while enjoying the delicious food + drinks available for additional purchase.
Register now at link in bio
#backtothebays #artsea #createandsip #whalestale #horseshoecrab
☀️ #backtothebays Summer Programs for Kids ☀️
Six weeks of three marine based programs for kids ages 7 - 14 including Bayside Adventures, ArtSEA Art + Science and Seahorse Art + Science.
Registration opens May 5 through the Town of Southampton Parks & Recreation Department. Create your account on their site now for easy registration.
Link in bio to register + for more information
#summer #eastend #outeast #southampton
✔️ Horseshoe Crab Monitoring Sessions Begin May 14 through June 29.
🌊 Become a "citizen scientist" and help us count and tag local horseshoe crabs coming to shore at night to lay their eggs!
📈 Join us in a state-wide effort to monitor our local horseshoe crab population and collect data that will inform policy that will help sustain their population for generations to come!
Multiple dates + times to join us! Register now at link in bio
#horseshoecrab #nys #horseshoecrabmonitoring #tianabay #hamptonbays
☀️ We are excited to announce that as of TODAY, we have officially launched Seahorse Hotels at FOUR locations on the East End - Southold, Greenport, Sag Harbor/North Haven, and Hampton Bays, Shinnecock/Tiana Bay.
🤿 Here is our team out in Sag Harbor, setting our Seahorse Hotels for the season - we will check these every two weeks through October to monitor for seahorse activity!
#backtothebays #seahorse #seahorserestoration #eastend #outeast
Back to the Bays continues to make a meaningful impact in #eastend coastal and marine restoration while engaging community members through our Stewardship Program.
Join us today and become a #backtothebays Steward. Gain access to these restoration opportunities with seahorses, coastal plants, spat-on-shell oysters, bay scallops, clams + more and make a difference in your community.
More info at link in bio.
#marinerestoration #longisland #stewardship
🦪 STEWARDSHIP SESSION: SHELL BAG ASSEMBLY - SUNDAY, MAY 3 at 11am🦪
Help our Aquaculture Coordinator create bags of oyster shells for our spat-on-shell oyster reef restoration projects on Shelter Island!
Bags of cured oyster + clam shells are used to set baby oysters onto, which is called spat-on-shell, or SOS. The SOS is then used to build oyster reefs at our various Stewardship Sites.
We will meet at our Shell Recycling Program shell curing pile at the back entrance of Sylvester Manor Educational Farm (enter from Manhanset Rd. across from Bonnie Ln.).
The volunteer time will entail: cutting and tying mesh to create bags; shoveling cured shell into the bags; neatly stacking bags off to the side. Gloves can be provided, but we encourage you to bring your own. Expect to get mildly wet and/or dirty, depending on conditions.
Register now at link in bio
#backtothebays #spatonshell #oysterreef #shelterisland #longisland
🌟 Spend your month giving #backtothebays
Join us Sunday, May 3 on Shelter Island to help assemble our shell bags to be used for spat-on-shell oyster reef production, Create + Sip a Horseshoe Molt at @whalestale.li , become a citizen scientist with Horseshoe Crab Monitoring + Tagging, and become a Steward to sein our seahorse population in Hampton Bays!
Register now at link in bio.
#horseshoecrab #seahorse #shelterisland #hamptonbays
