Massive #scallop die off, ‘unprecedented’ in #PeconicBay, #NewYork, #USA

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After a “near-unprecedented” scallop die-off in Peconic Bay, Suffolk County legislators on Thursday outlined efforts underway to investigate the cause.

“The alarm has sounded,” Suffolk County Presiding Officer DuWayne Gregory said at a press conference in Smithtown.

Experts with Peconic Estuary Program, Cornell Cooperative Extension and the state Department of Environmental Conservation have been working together to try to understand the problem, he said.

“We are seeing reports of die-off of 95%, up to 100% in some pockets,” Mr. Gregory said.

Steven Tettelbach, a shellfish ecologist with Cornell Cooperative Extension, described the die-off as one of the most serious the East End has seen since the mid-1980s.

“We have done extensive population surveys of the scallops and confirmed what baymen had rumored, that the die-off was up to 100% in some locations,” he said. “Going forward, we need to address that and hopefully mitigate some of the die-off and the repercussions to the fishermen, especially.”

He said they believe the die-off was the result of a combination of “high water temperature and low dissolved oxygen levels, in conjunction with the spawning of the adult scallops.”

Courtesy of riverheadnewsreview.timesreview.com

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