Save the Sound is a website dedicated to the waters of the Long Island Sound in New York and Connecticut. The Sound is an estuary ecosystem with a watershed that extends more that 16,800 square miles into Canada. However, the waters of the Sound face constant pressures from human activity throughout New England and Eastern New York. Save the Sound has been dedicated to the restoration, protection and preservation of the sound for over 40 years. The organization have programs dedicated to stopping pollution, restoring fisheries and habitats, defending drinking water and protecting the climate and air. Every year they have coastal cleanups that engage thousands of citizens to clean up marine debris. Save the Sound is a huge promoter of citizen scientists to monitor water quality and help them with their clean up efforts. Save the Sound encourages individuals who live around the Sound to become members or volunteer to the organization. They also work with schools and other organizations to create fundraisers and organize beach cleanups and educate people about how to help restore the Long Island Sound. Currently, they are working on a project to conserve Plum Island, an island that is the largest site for sea-gulls in New York and a habitat for 220 different bird species. In a 2009 act of Congress the Federal Government decided to put Plum Island up for auction. Save the Sound has gathered over 100 organizations to file a federal lawsuit and stop the sale of the island. Save the Sound is an organization that encourages people who leave near the Sound and use its resources on a daily basis to fight for their land and help restore it. Check out their website to learn about all of the initiatives they have in place to restore and save the Long Island Sound!
Image by Save the Sound
This website was very interesting to explore. I especially liked the Sound Health Explorer map, which allowed me to learn about the health of specific beaches in the Long Island Sound. I was born in Long Island, so I definitely feel connected to this site and its efforts, but I honestly did not know the extent of the degradation of this area until I read more about it. Thanks for sharing!
Page- thank you so much for sharing this! I remember learning about the preservation of the Long Island Sound in Earth Science. We took a trip to one of the beaches in CT and worked with the park management to help clean the beaches and look at the evidence of erosion on shorelines. After taking this course, and now reading this website, I feel so much more informed on what is actually happening to the Sound. I particularly enjoyed the “Long Island Sound” report card section where it shows the evolution of the water quality over the past 10 years. It is a great way to contextualize the problem!
Thanks so much for sharing this site with us, Page! It’s really interesting to learn more about the Long Island Sound, especially as you mentioned your own work on documenting and researching the Sound in your final lab presentation. Like Caroline commented, the report cards on the Sound were fascinating. The images remind me of the research you did on the Westhampton Lake. It would be super cool if the different parts of the Lake could be consistently divided into those areas you identified for data collection, for focused reporting and research.
I really enjoyed this site, Page! I appreciated its practicality – it provides a clear service to many of our lives. I looked up a few beaches that I have visited on Long Island on the Health Explorer map. I feel like if more people used sites like this and understood the direct connection between their actions and the quality of the beaches they love, conservation and sustainability would become more engrained in every day life.