Suffocation and Survival

New York, 1999

It's called the Long Island Sound - an eight thousand year old estuary whose shores were once home to the largest concentration of Native American Indian tribes anywhere in North America. It stretches from northern Manhattan to the Atlantic Ocean, from Long Island's north shore to Connecticut and, via the Connecticut River, to southern Quebec. At one time it was swarming with life - dolphins, flounder, clams, oysters, turtles, bluefish, and porgies.

Slowly the Long Island Sound changed.

It had been born in a different world, the child of massive fields of retreating blue glacial ice. It was one of nature's finest works of art, supporting endless cycles of life that made it more precious by their very existence.

When colonists came, they initiated its long, tragic decline. In the beginning it worked well with the new settlers. There was enough food for all. First, came the over fishing. If you catch more fish than are spawned, populations will be depleted. The situation grew worse when the houses were built, the factories erected, and the wetlands drained. Sewage was dumped. Chemicals, toxins, and other pollutants were pumped in. There were oil spills. Fishermen exploited the underwater life until species not decimated by the pollution were eaten away by human greed. The numbers were horrific: in one four year period between 1989 to 1993, bluefish declined by thirty percent, porgies dropped seventy-two percent, winter flounder tumbled eighty percent and surf clams plunged a nightmarish eighty-nine percent.

Awkwardly, the government stepped in. They treated the sewage and reduced the bacteria, making the water clearer. More sunlight penetrated, stimulating massive algae blooms. And when the algae decomposed in the summer, it consumed what little oxygen remained. The result is what we see today -- a natural body of water overloaded with both nutrients and contaminants, split in a bizarre schizoid balance between suffocation and survival.

< Previous Story      •      Next Story >

Back to Travel Homepage for more stories.

Back to top of page.