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PECONIC ESTUARY: AN INVENTORY OF SUBMERGED AQUATIC VEGETATION AND HARDENED SHORELINES FOR THE PECONIC ESTUARY, NEW YORK
Citation:
Tiner, R. W., H. C. Bergquist, S. Denise, AND B. McClain. PECONIC ESTUARY: AN INVENTORY OF SUBMERGED AQUATIC VEGETATION AND HARDENED SHORELINES FOR THE PECONIC ESTUARY, NEW YORK. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.
Description:
Executive Summary The Peconic Estuary Program (PEP) is interested in the extent of eelgrass and other submerged aquatic vegetation and in documenting changes in the shorelines of the Peconic Estuary. The Suffolk County Department of Health Services' Office of Ecology provided funds to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to gather geospatial information on submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) and the extent of hardened shorelines and docks in the Peconic Estuary. The Service used conventional photointerpretation techniques to identify and map these features. This inventory delineated 1,339 beds of submerged aquatic beds totaling 3,539 acres in the Peconic Estuary. About 44 percent of the beds was represented by eelgrass. East Hampton was first-ranked among towns in SAV acreage and in eelgrass abundance. Eelgrass beds were also extensive in the towns of Shelter Island and Southold. Gardiners Island and Shelter Island critical natural resource (CNR) areas contained the most SAV acreage. Among the CNR areas, Shelter Island and Orient had the greatest acreage of eelgrass. Almost 29 miles of hardened shorelines and nearly 9 miles of docks were mapped in the Peconic Estuary. Eighty-two percent of the hardened shorelines were bulkheads and seawalls. Southold had the greatest length of hardened shorelines, with 12.6 miles inventoried. It possessed almost twice the length of bulkheads and seawalls as Southampton, the second-ranked town in hardened shoreline coverage. Of the CNR areas, Northwest Harbor and Arshamonaque had more than two miles of hardened shores. Cow Neck, Cutchogue, Shelter Island, and Threemile/Accobonac Harbors each had more than one mile of hardened shorelines. Northwest Harbor had the greatest length of docks, with nearly one mile or 5,381 feet of these structures inventoried. Montauk and Cutchogue had more than 4,000 feet of docks.