Cornell Cooperative Extension will conduct a bottom trawl survey from Smith Point Inlet, in Brookhaven Town, to Montauk Point. It is scheduled to begin on Monday and continue through Nov. 23.
The East Hampton Town Trustees commissioned the five-year study of fish migration near the landing site of the South Fork Wind farm export cable to provide a consistent sampling of fish and invertebrates both in the area around the export cable landing site — the ocean beach at the end of Beach Lane in Wainscott — and a control area to the west. Data collected in the surveys, conducted before, during, and after the wind farm’s construction, will be used to document fish populations to determine if the wind farm, particularly the export cable through which the electricity it generates is delivered to a Long Island Power Authority substation in East Hampton, is impacting fish populations or migration patterns.
Ahead of the survey, mobile and fixed-gear fishermen are asked to contact Alex Mercado, a fisheries specialist with the extension, at 516-590-5678 or [email protected] with their gear positions within the survey area. This is intended to minimize inconvenience.
During the survey, fishermen can contact the F/V Bulldog on VHF Channels 13 or 16 to determine the updated daily schedule and communicate helpful information to the captain and Tara McClintock, a Cornell scientist, on board. Personnel aboard the F/V Bulldog, an 80-foot trawler, will check each site for marked gear by cruising along a selected tow path before the net is set. Twenty-minute tows undertaken at three knots cover approximately one nautical mile.
The timeline for the survey’s completion has shifted from an initial projection because of a delay at the start of the project, Mr. Mercado said yesterday. Cornell will conclude it after final trawl surveys are conducted in the winter and spring.
“The analysis will take place when all the data is collected,” Jon Aldred of the trustees told his colleagues on Monday, “and then we’ll get a full report.”
