Brown Tide back in western Shinnecock Bay

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A bloom of the dreaded brown tide algae has exploded in Quantuck Bay over the last month, the third consecutive year that the destructive algae has thrived in the enclosed bay.

As it has in years past, the bloom is spreading both east and west through the Quogue Canal and Moniebogue Bay and into portions of Shinnecock and Moriches bays. The line of brown water that marks the bloom’s edge in western Shinnecock advances and retreats with the changing tides can be seen just to the west of the Ponquogue Bridge.

Dr. Chris Gobler, a marine science professor at Stony Brook University, said water samples collected throughout the coastal bay system show that concentrations of the brown tide algae have reached the levels of last year’s heavy bloom. Brown, discolored water stretches from just to the east of Moriches Inlet all the way through the Quantuck Bay system and into western Shinnecock about to the Rampasture area.

“It’s pretty thick out there,” Dr. Gobler said.

The flushing of clean ocean water from the inlets has kept the algae from spreading into eastern Shinnecock Bay or western Moriches Bay, he explained.

The cool weather this month may mean the algae, which withers in the heat of the summer, will persist into July and possibly beyond, Dr. Gobler said. In the rainy, cool summer of 2000 the brown tide blooms in Quantuck lasted through the entire summer and persisted well into the fall. The algae did not bloom as heavily in Quantuck from 2003 through 2006, but returned to the Westhampton Beach bay in 2007 and spread in intensity and breadth last year.

Brown tide first appeared on Long Island in 1985, staining almost all the local bays a dingy brown and devastating bay scallop populations. It reappeared in most summers until 1995 when it mysteriously vanished from the Peconics and most of the South Shore bay systems as suddenly as it appeared.

Quantuck Bay has been the most glaring exception, with the algae blooming at some level every summer since 1985. The bay’s low rate of flushing with clean water because of its distance from the two inlets is likely to blame for the algae’s persistence, scientists have said.

The brown tide bloom has not been found to hurt fish, but will likely impact shellfish populations, many of which are just now entering their peak spawning season. Unlike other algae species, which make up the primary diet for shellfish such as bay scallops and hard clams, scientists have found that shellfish stop eating when brown tide blooms.

“It’s really bad ... particularly for shellfish,” Dr. Gobler said. “From what I’m told, Quantuck used to be a great place to dig clams.”