Stony Brook University has received a nearly $170,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to support marine science and fisheries research. The money will be used to improve management of protected species of fish and marine mammals within what is called the Northeast United States Large Marine Ecosystem.

The grant will support the use of state-of-the-art climate models to develop tools to assist the commercial fishing industry in reducing bycatch of marine mammals and fish in long-line and midwater trawl fisheries, according to a statement by Lesley Thorne, a Stony Brook University assistant professor. This, Dr. Thorne said, will increase the efficiency and profitability of marine harvests.

Representative Lee Zeldin, who serves New York’s First Congressional District, announced the grant on Friday. “Stony Brook University is a world leader in groundbreaking scientific research,” he said in a statement, “and I am pleased to announce that this funding has been awarded to support their amazing work.” The grant, he said, “will be used to improve decision making pertaining to the management of fish and aquatic wildlife. Fishing is incredibly important to our life, culture, and economy here on Long Island, and as part of this community we must do all we can to support this historic tradition.

The Town of East Hampton is holding an online auction to sell surplus property. Bids can be submitted until Sunday on the auction site aarauctions.com, with payment due by 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Items must be picked up by next Thursday.

Among the items for sale are a 2013 Kawasaki Jet Ski, cars and trucks, trailers, mowers, and lights. They can be seen on the auction site, and an in-person preview of them can be arranged by calling Lisa Valcich at the town purchasing office.

The Long Island Rail Road may add midday service on the South and North Forks, and double weekend service to the North Fork during the summer, with the goals of providing more travel options and reducing traffic congestion.

L.I.R.R. officials and a coalition of elected officials and community groups have been discussing enhanced train service on both forks. With regard to the South Fork, discussions have focused on additional intra-Island travel east of Speonk. Proposed service enhancements would provide new morning and evening trains for commuting between Speonk and Montauk, as well as additional midday travel.

Representatives of the North Fork expressed support for additional morning and midday service. A revised weekday schedule would increase service to four round trips between Greenport and Ronkonkoma and allow for a midday arrival in New York City, as requested by North Fork residents. Additional Ron­kon­koma-to-Greenport round trips were also proposed for summer weekends.

Changes to the Greenport weekday schedule could go into effect as early as November, with additional summer service to begin next year, according to Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who has facilitated the discussions. Additional service on the South Fork is a longer-range plan, with the identification of infrastructure needs for rail service being a prerequisite. Discussions are ongoing, and formal planning could begin in 2019.

“Our journey to provide more trains and commuter service for our local residents has taken a major step forward,” Mr. Thiele said in a statement issued on Monday. “We challenged the L.I.R.R. to provide additional service opportunities to be more responsive to local residents and businesses and they delivered.”

“Improving rail service to the South Fork is one of the only opportunities to decrease the growing vehicle traffic crisis in this region,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said in a statement. “I am encouraged by the unified efforts of the Towns of East Hampton and Southampton, L.I.R.R., and Assemblyman Thiele and Senator [Kenneth] LaValle to bring improved train shuttle services to the South Fork.”

Prior to implementation of enhanced service, L.I.R.R. staff will advise the Metropolitan Transit Authority board of the anticipated changes. At that point, a timeline for service implementation would be developed while the railroad reorganizes crew and equipment allocations.

The United States House of Representatives last week passed the Plum Island Preservation Act, which would prevent the federal government from selling the island to the highest bidder.

Representative Lee Zeldin, whose district extends to the North and South Forks, including Plum Island, reintroduced the bill in April, following its passage in the House in May 2016. The Senate did not act after its 2016 passage, necessitating its reintroduction. It must pass in the Senate and be signed into law by the president in order to take effect. If it becomes law, it will suspend laws passed in 2008 and 2011 that mandated the island’s public sale.

The federal government has owned Plum Island since 1899. It has been used as a research laboratory since World War II, and a variety of infectious animal-borne diseases have been studied there since 1954.

The Department of Homeland Security announced in 2005 that the Animal Disease Center’s activities would be moved to the new Bio-and-Agro Defense Facility in Kansas. The cost of relocating the activities to Kansas was to be offset by the sale of the island. Elected officials including Mr. Zeldin’s predecessor, Tim Bishop, opposed that plan.

The act passed last week seeks to commission the Government Accountability Office, in consultation with the Department of Homeland Security, to develop a comprehensive plan for the future of the 840-acre island. The legislation requires that the plan focus on conservation, education, and research and include alternative uses for the island including a transfer of ownership to another federal agency, the state or local government, a nonprofit organization, or a combination thereof.

The bill received unanimous support from the Long Island and Connecticut House delegations and from a coalition of environmental groups.

In a statement issued on July 25, Mr. Zeldin called his opposition to the sale of Plum Island “one of my highest local priorities.” He added, “Preserving this island’s natural beauty, while maintaining a research mission, will continue to provide important economic and environmental benefits to Long Island. It will also ensure that the state-of-the-art research facility at Plum Island does not go to waste.” He said that he would continue to urge New York and Connecticut’s senators to pass the legislation in their chamber. 

East Hampton Town Councilman Peter Van Scoyoc will sponsor a resolution expressing opposition to the expansion of offshore drilling in the Atlantic Ocean proposed by President Donald Trump.

The president’s America-First Offshore Energy Strategy would reverse President Barack Obama’s action barring energy exploration in Atlantic ocean canyons from Massachusetts to Virginia, as well as in the Arctic.

Trump’s move to expand offshore drilling has earned approval from the energy industry, while environmental groups have voiced opposition and concern. A 45-day comment period on the federal plan ends Aug. 15.

“This ban being lifted and opening up the Atlantic to drilling is of great concern to me,” Councilman Van Scoyoc said at a town board meeting on Tuesday. “An oil spill off our coast could be devastating. It could affect our tourism, our recreation, and our fishing in very negative ways.”

The town board, Mr. Van Scoyoc said, should “take a strong stance” against the new offshore drilling.

The Surf Lodge is headed toward legalizing almost all the structures on its property after the East Hampton Zoning Board of Appeals indicated Tuesday night that it would unanimously approve a series of variance requests from the owners, Jayma Cardoso and Michael Walrath, in agreement with the town attorney’s office.

The three exceptions that the Surf Lodge management will have to toss overboard if they are to get a final certificate of occupancy are a flagpole, a movie screen, and a fire pit, all located in a beach lounge area on the northeast part of the property.

“This is an extremely nonconforming property,” David Lys, a member of the board, said as it reached its tentative decision. Decisions by the board are not official until they are written up by the board’s attorney, Beth Baldwin, and each member signs off on them.

The town had reached an agreement with the owners last year after years of legal strife. In 2014, the establishment paid a $100,000 fine, believed to be the biggest in town history. It was around that time that Mr. Walrath, a venture capitalist, became a major partner in the restaurant, motel, and club.

The slightly more than one-acre property, which is off Edgemere Street, is surrounded on three sides by water, meaning many structures on the property need setback variances from Fort Pond. The owners have agreed to install an entirely new septic system. The board agreed to all variances required under a written agreement between the owners and the town. However, the fire pit, the movie screen, and the flagpole are not contained in that agreement, and were rejected.

Once the zoning board finalizes the variances before it, the planning board will schedule a public hearing on the site plan, the next step toward finalizing the agreement and settling the outstanding issues.

“I think it was great that the town and the owners were able to come to an agreement,” John Whelan, the board’s chairman, said.

As happy as Mr. Walrath and Ms. Cardoso may be over the result, the same cannot be said of four owners of units at the Montauk Shores Condominium complex at Ditch Plain, which the board debated on July 25. The owners were seeking variances from the Federal Emergency Management Agency rules governing flood zones.

The most in need of relief was a unit belonging to Eric Cole. The board had granted variances several years ago, seeming to okay Mr. Cole’s plan to build a 765-square-foot mobile home. It was later learned that the structure needs to be elevated an additional five feet above grade to comply with FEMA regulations. Roy Dalene told his fellow board members that this was something that the builder should have been aware of. The board worried that granting variances from FEMA regulations for this project could have a ripple effect, raising flood insurance rates across the town. 

Applications from the owners of three other units — James and Susan Wandzilak, Jim and Kim Welch, and Anthony and Janice Paratore — met similar fates. The decision will not be final until the board signs off on a determination crafted by its attorney. 

Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone announced Tuesday that the county has requested $50 million in state money to provide grants for the replacement of cesspool and septic systems with advanced wastewater treatment systems.

Long Island waters suffer from nitrogen pollution. An excess of nitrogen, which is released from traditional waste treatment systems, causes too much algae to grow, decreasing oxygen levels, harming the quality of the water, and killing off fish. Toxic algal blooms, which make humans sick, also grow.

It is estimated that more than two out of three cesspools and septic systems in the region are too old to function properly, and many require two or more pump-outs per year. 

The $50 million would come from the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s water quality improvement project, and will advance the recommendations in Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan initiative. It would be used to fund the county’s previously announced septic improvement program, which provides grants to homeowners installing advanced wastewater treatment systems. The money will be divided equally among the 10 towns in Suffolk County and could pay for the replacement of up to 5,000 systems.

The estimated cost of the recommended treatment systems is between $15,000 and $20,000. County residents with incomes below $300,000 are eligible to receive up to $11,000 for design and installation of new systems at year-round residences, while those with incomes up to $500,000 are eligible for grants of half that much. Under the county program, homeowners could finance the remainder of the cost of a new wastewater system with a 15-year, low-interest loan.

In East Hampton, town officials will hold a hearing tonight on a town septic replacement rebate program, which is expected to be implemented immediately. As proposed, it would provide grants for the full cost of alternative, advanced systems — up to $16,000 — to eligible property owners in water protection priority areas and those in certain income brackets, and up to $10,000, or 75 percent of the cost, for other town property owners.

Should Mr. Bellone succeed in obtaining the state funding, that money would bolster the money available to the town through the portion of the community preservation fund available for water quality improvement projects.

It would be a “significant supplement,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said Tuesday, “with all kinds of benefit to us.” Dedicating the state money to the rebate program would allow the town to advance other water quality improvement projects, or make additional land purchases, using the preservation fund money, he said.

After tonight’s hearing on the septic rebate program, Mr. Cantwell said, “we should be ready to hit the ground running.” 

Deepwater Wind, the Rhode Island company that plans a 15-turbine offshore wind farm approximately 30 miles from Montauk, has announced plans for an offshore wind farm paired with an energy storage system that would provide electricity to Massachusetts. The company says it would be the world’s largest such installation.

The proposed wind farm, called Revolution Wind, would be constructed on the same federal lease site on which the South Fork Wind Farm is to be situated. It is to comprise a 144-megawatt wind farm coupled with a battery storage system provided by Tesla. The proposal is in response to the state’s request for proposals for new sources of clean energy, according to Deepwater Wind, which also provided alternative bids for 288-megawatt and 96-megawatt versions of Revolution Wind.

“Revolution Wind is flexible and scalable,” Jeff Grybowski, Deepwater Wind’s chief executive officer, said in a statement issued on Monday. “That’s a serious advantage of offshore wind — we can build to the exact size utilities need. We can build a larger project if other New England states want to participate now, or we can start smaller to fit into the region’s near-term energy gaps. And our pricing at any size will be very competitive with the alternatives.”

If approved, local construction work on Revolution Wind could begin in 2022, with the project in operation the following year. Survey work is underway at Deepwater Wind’s lease area.

Deepwater Wind also announced that it will base construction and operations in New Bedford, Mass. Final turbine assembly and staging operations will be located at the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal. Revolution Wind’s long-term operations and maintenance center will also be in New Bedford. 

Income into the Peconic Bay Region Community Preservation Fund — the land preservation and water quality fund established by the five East End towns — in June reached its highest monthly total since December 2014.

A total of $11.2 million was collected for the regional fund that month. This year’s six-month total for January through June is also up. At $49.2 million, it is 6.8 percent higher than the total for the first half of 2016.

According to Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., who issued a press release with the recent figures, “Revenues have shown increasing strength in the last four months. These revenue increases demonstrate a strengthening real estate market on the East End.”

In East Hampton, however, preservation fund revenues, which come from a 2-percent tax on real estate transfers, were down by just over 20 percent in the first six months of 2017, compared to last year. Approximately $13 million was raised from January through June.

Compared to the first half of last year, revenues in Southampton were up by 22 percent, at $30 million. The Town of Southold saw a 26-percent increase, with $3.5 million flowing into its preservation fund between January and June. Revenues in Riverhead were up by 10 percent, at $1.5 million, and up by 20 percent for Shelter Island, at $1 million.

The United States Navy is planning a new round of sonar and weapons testing and training exercises in its Atlantic Training and Testing Study Area, which covers some 2.6 million nautical miles of inshore and offshore waters, extending from the coastline of New England to the Gulf of Mexico.

The exercises are scheduled to begin in November 2018; the Navy first needs to renew permits issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service under the Endangered Species and Marine Mammal Protection Acts, as its activities have been deemed potentially harmful to whales, dolphins, fish, birds, and sea turtles.

A public comment period extends through August, and several hearings are being held on the proposal, though none in the New York area. Comments may be submitted online at the project’s website, AFTTEIS.com, or by mail to the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Atlantic, Attention Code EV22KP (AFTT EIS Project Managers), 6506 Hampton Boulevard, Norfolk, Va. 23508-1278.

A draft environmental impact statement describing the project and its potential effects on ocean habitat, pelagic animals, vegetation, and other areas — including reports addressing marine mammal strandings associated with Navy sonar activities and an analysis of the acoustic impacts on marine mammals and sea turtles — is on the website.

  The document concludes that most environmental impacts, according to the Navy, would be short-term or minimal. The use of sonar and explosives could cause behavior changes, injury, or death in fish, marine mammals, birds, or sea turtles and other reptiles, the statement says. However, while individual animals may be affected, the analysis says that for the various species there is little potential for long-term or populationwide impacts.

In a fact sheet on sonar and marine mammals, the National Marine Fisheries Service describes how “most, if not all, marine animals rely to some extent on sound for a wide range of biological functions, including communication, navigation, foraging, and predator detection.”

In certain conditions, the fact sheet says, “mid-frequency military sonars may play a role in marine mammal strandings.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and partner agencies are trying to better understand the issues, according to the fact sheet, “and to identify the most effective way to mitigate adverse effects of active sonar operations while balancing important national security needs.”

The sonar systems used by the Navy to detect enemy submarines, a question-and-answer column in Scientific American magazine says, “generate slow-rolling sound waves topping out at around 235 decibels,” while the sound from loud rock bands tops out at 130 decibels. The sound waves travel underwater for hundreds of miles and retain high decibels as far as 300 miles from their source. There is evidence, according to the magazine, that, to avoid the sonar waves, whales will swim hundreds of miles, rapidly change their depth, causing physical harm to themselves, and beach themselves. In 2005, the article notes, 34 whales of three different species were stranded and died along the Outer Banks of North Carolina during Navy sonar training nearby.

The Natural Resources Defense Council successfully sued the Navy in 2003 to restrict the use of low-frequency sonar off the California coast. Two years later, after a coalition led by the council asked federal courts to further restrict more harmful, far-ranging sonar use off the Southern California coast, the Supreme Court ruled that the Navy should be allowed to continue the sonar testing, citing national security. In its legal brief, the coalition referred to Navy documents that estimated the sonar testing “would kill some 170,000 marine mammals and cause permanent injury to more than 500 whales, not to mention temporary deafness for at least 8,000 others,” Scientific American reported.

The exact locations and dates of the upcoming naval exercises have not been released. According to Navy documents, the activities are necessary to maintain military readiness, and may include testing torpedoes, unmanned vehicles, sonar systems, or “similar activities that are critical to the success of undersea warfare.”

Sonar, the Navy says, “is critical to the Navy’s ability to defend against adversary submarines and anti-ship mines,” and therefore “is necessary to conduct scientific research, evaluate new sonar systems, and maintain the operational capability of current systems.”  

There are more than 300 “extremely quiet modern submarines,” according to the Navy document, operated by more than 40 nations worldwide, making anti-submarine warfare training a top priority. “While simulators provide early skill repetition and enhance teamwork, there is no substitute for training in a realistic environment,” the Navy says.        

The Navy works with the fisheries service to “reduce the potential impacts of training and testing activities on the ocean environment,” and provides funds to research marine species physiology and behavior in an attempt to better understand and avoid the effects of its training and testing activities on the marine environment,” according to the agency’s environmental impact statement. It has taken a “proactive role” throughout the Atlantic testing area to protect the North Atlantic right whale, a highly endangered species, the Navy says.