A Treasure Trove in Lake Montauk
Scallops and the eelgrass they like to dwell in may be making a rebound
 Thomas E. Mahnken Jr.
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(10/09/2008) A healthy trove of scallops was found last week in Lake Montauk during a survey by the East Hampton Town Natural Resources Department and Cornell Cooperative Extension.
Not surprisingly, the mature mollusks were found thriving in a bed of eelgrass that seems to have spread, a good sign, officials said on Monday of the scallop’s favorite habitat.
Eelgrass, which was killed off in most of the Peconic Estuary bays and harbors by the brown algae blooms of the 1980s and ’90s, seems to be making a comeback in the lake. In the future, more accurate comparisons will be made using baseline information gathered from the study’s surveys, said Mark Abramson of the Natural Resources Department.
“We saw a good amount of scallops during the eelgrass transects,” said Mr. Abramson, who, along with Chris Pickerell of the Cornell Cooperative Extension’s marine program, has been measuring the existing beds “to see if they’re growing or receding.”
“We don’t have anything specific yet,” he said, “just interpretations off of aerial photographs.”
The ongoing survey is part of the town’s Lake Montauk Watershed Management Study. The comprehensive investigation, which even gets down to the DNA of things, was launched last May.
The study was funded with a $75,000 grant from the 2006 Environmental Protection Funds administered by the State Department of State. A committee of scientists, town officials, fishermen, and business owners oversees the work.
Larry Penny, the town’s natural resources director, said that Mr. Abramson and his crew also discovered a new invasive plant called Grateloupia turuturu, a large-leafed red seaweed, in the southwest corner of the lake.
“The last was sputnik grass,” Mr. Penny said, referring to an invasive seaweed, codium, that first appeared at about the time the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik satellite in 1997.
“I remember we found scallops living in codium,” Mr. Penny said, sounding an optimistic note. On the other hand, Grateloupia, a native to the Asian Pacific that was probably transported here in the ballast of a tanker ship, is known to crowd out beneficial species such as Irish moss.
“They did the standard biomass examination,” Mr. Penny reported. “They didn’t find that much eelgrass, but they found it where they didn’t think it would be.”
On Tuesday, the survey team switched gears and made trawl surveys of the lake to determine what creatures were swimming about. Mr. Penny said his department did have nearly seven years of trawling data, but wanted a fresh starting point.
“This is new stuff,” he said. “The overall purpose is to get baseline data.”
Mr. Penny said he expected a technical committee to be in place by next week that would include Emerson Hasbrouck of the Cornell Cooperative Extension and Lisa Tettlebach, a biologist with the State Department of Environmental Conservation. Ms. Tettlebach is a shellfish specialist who will be looking at bottom habitats.
Mr. Hasbrouck will study freshwater runoff. Using DNA analysis, the extension’s laboratory is able to determine whether coliform bacteria found in the lake comes from human fecal matter or from other sources.
On Tuesday, Mr. Hasbrouck explained the process. “We look at the DNA profile of E. coli bacteria. All mammals have E. coli in their intestines.”
“The bacteria tend to be host-specific. There are strains toxic to humans. Each type of animal has its own E. coli niche in its intestines. So, humans are different from Canada geese, from cormorants, from raccoons. We have built up a DNA library from known sources by collecting scat, growing the E. coli, then doing a DNA analysis, a banding pattern.”
“We have a big data base, so we can test water, isolate the E. coli, do an analysis, and compare it to what we have in the library.”
In addition to testing for E. coli in water from 12 small streams and drainage pipes that contribute to the lake, Mr. Hasbrouck said, the Cornell Extension will help measure the flow rates of the tributaries. The small invertebrates living in the lake’s sediments will also be a focus of the comprehensive overview.
William Walsh, a Montauk-based surveyor, has been mapping the lake’s wetlands for the study. Mr. Penny is exploring funding sources for a gauge similar to the type used by the United States Geological Survey. The gauge will be able to measure the lake’s water level, and will have supporting sensors that can read oxygen and salinity levels and transmit the data to computers.
Scallops were not the lake’s only surprise, Mr. Penny said. During an investigation of drainage along the east side, what appeared to be an old drainage conduit system was discovered.
“We found old drainage grids, impressive hardware, all interconnected,” Mr. Penny said. “It looks like it was put in by the military, heavy duty, but it doesn’t work now.”
“It’s not draining,” he said, which means it could be a possible source of contamination.
Speaking of which, the natural resources director said he had been encouraged by business owners to seek funding to put conduits through the Star Island causeway. This would permit a tidal ebb and flow between Coonsfoot Cove in the northwestern part of the lake, with its docks and marinas, and the lake’s southern end. Mr. Penny said the conduit would greatly improve water quality in Coonsfoot Cove.