Brown Tide Strikes Great South Bay

It poses no danger to humans, but the brown tide currently sweeping across the Great South Bay is a real danger to the shellfish population. 

According to a Newsday report, the brown tide, which was last seen in 2008, first started appearing in the bay at the end of June and picked up in intensity over the past week. 

Brown tide concentrations of 1.28 million cells per milliliter near Heckscher State Park and 1.1 million cells per milliliter off Bay Shore were recently found with Newsday reporting that when those numbers reach just 50,000 to 100,000 cells per milliliter, it can cause a host of issues, including endangering shellfish, slowing clam recovery and killing eelgrass. 

"The water off of Captree is very dark, very brown," commercial fisherman Kenny Wolfe told Newsday. "It's been getting worse over the last few weeks."