SoundBites Spring 2025

SoundBites ACTION FOR OUR REGION’S ENVIRONMENT

IN THIS ISSUE • • • •

The underside of an Atlantic horseshoe crab, a keystone species facing growing threats in Long Island Sound’s changing ecosystem.

Protecting Horseshoe Crabs Rain Garden Records New Water Quality Database Lobster Pot Recoveries

Latest with Leah

Holding the Line for Clean Water and Healthy Lands It is finally time to take out the kayak and say hello to spring fish runs, this year’s newest additions to wildlife families, and our varied and meandering coastlines. I need this—and I bet you do, too. A place to catch our breath, as the big movements of the world melt away into small moments of appreciation and reconnection.

As we launched for our second paddle for the season, my sixyear-old pointed to plastic scraps nearby and asked why anyone would throw trash on the ground if they knew it could hurt fish and turtles. I explained that sometimes people don’t realize the harm their actions can cause. And that’s why we join cleanups— because community is about acting together to fix a problem.

But that left out a critical point: Sometimes people who cause harm know exactly what they are doing, and in those cases, communities must also hold them accountable.

Over the last few months, the federal government has threatened core environmental protections with an onslaught of regulatory rollback pronouncements and has stripped funding from critical projects that protect water quality, habitats, and public health.

The Environmental Protection Agency and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which are the first lines of defense for our natural resources, are facing staffing reductions, the magnitude of which could threaten their basic services.

But people power remains strong.

Save the Sound is constantly analyzing where our efforts will be most impactful, mobilizing our engineers, scientists, attorneys, and allies across the Sound region to defend the right to healthy ecosystems. We are in the New York and Connecticut state legislatures working to shore up any weaknesses created by the federal administration’s actions. We are bringing people together for on-the-ground projects like rain gardens, dam removals, and harbor monitoring to create data for action. And we are deploying our litigation expertise to defend environmental laws when all other solutions have been exhausted.

Thank you for remaining committed to our common journey toward a vibrant and healthy Long Island Sound region.

Seasons change. Our mission and our values haven’t.

I appreciate you navigating these times with us,

Leah Lopez Schmalz President

Where Is It Coming From?

Our water quality lab adds DNA tracking to pinpoint pollution sources For three years, our team has been analyzing water samples from rivers, bays, and shorelines across western Long Island Sound to detect and measure fecal indicator bacteria.

Now we’re taking things a step further by answering another key question: Who are those bacteria coming from?

Over the winter, our John & Daria Barry Foundation Water Quality Lab geared up with new equipment, and we will begin conducting DNA microbial source tracking later this year to determine whether detected fecal contamination comes from canines, avians, or humans.

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“Knowing the biological source is crucial,” says Peter Linderoth, director of healthy waters and lands for Save the Sound. “If we can confirm a human marker, we can start pinpointing where it’s coming from—are there combined sewer-and-stormwater outfalls in the area, or maybe a cracked sanitary sewer line nearby?” Similarly, finding dog and bird contamination can spur better management of animal waste.

With DNA tracking, we’ll go beyond detecting pollution—we’ll know where it’s coming from, making it easier to hold polluters accountable, guide infrastructure improvements, and protect Long Island Sound more effectively than ever before.

Published May 2025 by Save the Sound. All rights reserved.

Articles in this newsletter may be reprinted with permission • avandine@savethesound.org Contributors: kHyal, Killian Duborg, Josh Garskof, Martin Hain, Laura McMillan, Betsy Painter, David Seigerman, Anne Urkawich, and Amanda VanDine.

Growing Greener Communities A record-breaking year for residential rain garden installations The project starts with a burst of spray paint. Nicole Davis, our watersheds project manager, or Lys Gant, our watershed stewardship coordinator, shakes the canister and outlines a carefully planned oblong form on the grass, marking the future rain garden’s boundary.

The location and shape are far from random; Nicole and Lys have assessed sunlight exposure, shade patterns, soil conditions, and the topography of the yard—does it slope and where does rainwater pool? Watch their webinar, Reducing Runoff, One Rain Garden at a Time, at savethesound.org/virtualarchive to learn about the full process.

Rain garden installations are a dynamic blend of ecology, design, and community engagement. These nature-based solutions take a local approach with a regional impact: Plant roots filter harmful pollutants from stormwater, allowing clean water to soak into the ground and enter the watershed.

Save the Sound has a goal of installing 500 rain gardens, and we’re making progress, thanks in large part to the many helping hands of our passionate volunteers.

Last year, we installed a record-breaking 17 residential rain gardens in New Haven with nearly 200 volunteers. That’s multiple nursery trips, hauling mulch, tools, and plants, then hours of

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digging, cutting roots, placing pipes, refilling the trench and covering with grass mats, and planting native species like swamp milkweed and asters—sweaty, hands-on work that’s both tough and rewarding.

Our team is also advancing rain gardens in New York with several projects in the works. For the Green & Blue Learning Lab project with the Port Chester Youth Bureau, our clean water advocacy specialist David Abreu is teaching students about water quality.

This summer, they plan to install a rain garden at the William James Memorial Gateway Park in Port Chester, the second in New York. The first was installed at the Rye Arts Center with the Rye Conservation Commission.

Looking ahead in 2025, we’re set to install 23 rain gardens throughout New Haven County—12 in partnership with a community group—along with a more substantial rain garden at an early childhood learning center in Hamden. Want in on this purposeful fun? We’re looking for volunteers to help!

Visit our website for upcoming dates—sign up, connect with your community, and dig in to help keep our waterways clean.

> VOLUNTEER WITH US at savethesound.org/events

Your Support, Your Way Protecting the places you love starts with you. Whether you give by check, card, cash, stock, donor-advised fund, qualified charitable distribution, or a planned legacy gift, your support drives lasting change. You can even celebrate a birthday or wedding by inviting others to give in your honor—or double your impact with an employer match. However you choose to give, you’re helping create cleaner water, healthier lands, and stronger communities for generations to come.

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Article and horseshoe crab photos courtesy of guest author kHyal, a creative activator passionate about horseshoe crab conservation and reducing plastic pollution.

Blue Blood, Green Future?

Saving Long Island’s horseshoe crabs one at a time My fascination with horseshoe crabs began as a child at Rhode Island’s Watch Hill Conservancy and Connecticut’s Thimble Islands. My first art exhibition featuring their exoskeletons was in 1987. Since moving to Black Rock in 2007, they’ve become central to my life, leading me to start a rescue at Seaside Park, where I’ve helped as many as 40 stranded crabs in a single day.

In recent years, there has been a lot of news about horseshoe crabs. So much so that family members and friends often forward me articles about them. While it’s great that the wider public is learning more about this keystone species, there’s still more work to do.

Many have heard the basics: •

Horseshoe crabs have been around for 450 million years, predating dinosaurs by over 200 million years and surviving them by over 65 million years.

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They are not actually “crabs” and are more closely related to arthropods like spiders and scorpions.

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They have 10 eyes of five different types located in different areas of their bodies, and 12 legs (one set just for eating).

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Despite their appearance, they do not bite or sting and are completely harmless to humans.

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They have been traditionally used as bait for whelk and eels (though unnecessary since substitutes exist).

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Their blue blood contains Limulus Amebocyte Lysate, used to test vaccines for human safety, though synthetic alternatives are now available.

2019

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission reports a 10-year decline in horseshoe crab stocks, dropping from “good” in 2009 to “poor” in 2019.

2024

The Horseshoe Crab Protection Act (S.3185 / A.10140) overwhelmingly passes the New York legislature but is vetoed by Governor Kathy Hochul.

2023

Governor Ned Lamont passes a statewide ban on the hand-harvesting of horseshoe crabs or their eggs from Connecticut waters.

A lynchpin to biodiversity, horseshoe crabs support other species through the millions of eggs they produce each year. Migrating shorebirds, particularly the endangered red knot (pictured below), depend on these protein-packed eggs during long migratory routes, as do Atlantic loggerhead turtles. A spawning female often lays 4,000 eggs per cluster and can lay 100,000 over many days, but this abundance is dropping.

Horseshoe crab populations have declined to historic lows. Connecticut banned hand harvesting in 2023, allowing biomedical use only by permit. New Jersey has also

enacted a ban, and Massachusetts has some legal protections. While a bill to ban horseshoe crab harvesting in New York was drafted in 2024, it was not signed by the governor, making Long Island Sound murky waters for crabs to navigate safely.

2025

Save the Sound and fellow advocates return to Albany to continue fighting for strong, Sound-wide protections for horseshoe crabs.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

As a plastic pollution activist, I’m concerned about microplastics in horseshoe crabs’ diet, bodies, and eggs. Marine debris presents additional hazards as they navigate to spawning grounds from deeper waters, where they can become entangled in lost fishing gear, plastic bags, and balloon strings.

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Report any found tags or tagged animals to the US Fish & Wildlife Service (fws.gov/ crabtag), an Atlantic coastwide monitoring program.

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Gently flip over any horseshoe crabs you may encounter on their back.

In 2023, I became Project Limulus’ designated Seaside Park beach captain after training with Professor Jo-Marie Kasinak. As a citizen scientist, I tag crabs and record data on shell condition, dimensions, and parasite levels. (I am also a Save the Sound cleanup captain there.) Protecting horseshoe crabs means protecting a delicate web of life—and I’ll keep doing my part, one crab at a time.

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Join managed efforts to help conserve horseshoe crabs through Project Limulus.

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Volunteer for a Save the Sound beach cleanup near you.

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Sign up for action alerts and make your voice heard at savethesound.org/subscribe.

SoundBites Spring 2025 | 5

Remembering Nancy Alderman (1939–2025) A life devoted to environmental change Nancy Alderman’s dedication to environmental protection and public health leaves a substantial legacy in Connecticut and beyond. Nancy was a trailblazer who worked with physicians, scientists, and the public to combat the effects of environmental toxins, from carcinogens like asbestos and formaldehyde to harmful chemicals such as PFAS and BPA. Her pioneering efforts shaped policies to mitigate these risks, influencing legislators, governors, and attorneys general to pass protective laws and regulations that helped save lives and make our cherished natural resources cleaner for future generations.

Nancy has been recognized by many over the years, but just this year in recognition of her impact, the Garden Club of New Haven honored her with its Centennial Environmental Hero Award and planted a tree in her name. It will serve as an enduring tribute to her work in the city she worked so hard to protect.

“Nancy served as an early Chair of the Board for Connecticut Fund for the Environment, now Save the Sound, and was instrumental in identifying and pursuing the historic Upjohn case that addressed decades of pollution to the Quinnipiac River in North Haven,” shares Roger Reynolds, senior legal director at Save the Sound. “The $1.2 million settlement established the Quinnipiac River Fund, which Nancy then helped direct the investment of for decades to ensure support for river restoration.

She went on to found Environment and Human Health, Inc., in 1997, a sciencebased organization dedicated to rigorous research and public policy development, which still runs strong today.”

Nancy was formative in Save the Sound’s early days as an organization and her tenacity is embedded in who we are. Her tireless commitment to stopping pollution at its source continues to inspire us all as we fight for the health of people and wildlife alike.

Wetlands, Wildlife Refuge, and Water Quality An opportunity to protect green space on Long Island: The Braff property A real estate listing in Long Island’s Lattingtown immediately caught the eye of conservationists. Known as the Braff property, this open space contains wetlands integral to protecting Mill Neck Creek’s water quality and wildlife. Wading birds, such as great blue heron and great egret, and other marsh birds, such as belted kingfishers, feed on the ample resources of the creeks and rest high in their tree-top lookouts. The property is also a haven for red fox denning and other mammals that use the extensive tidal marshes for hunting.

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After hearing from numerous people concerned about the sale of the property, Save the Sound and the North Shore Land Alliance took up the cause to get the parcel added to the adjacent Congressman Lester Wolff Oyster Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Should the property be left undeveloped and conserved, it would offer potential for wetland migration and adaptation to sea-level rise. The property would provide the only land-based access point for this mostly subtidal refuge, which is the largest in the Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex.

Save the Sound and North Shore Land Alliance sent a joint letter to Congressman Tom Suozzi requesting assistance in the protection of this worthy place, presenting a report prepared by our Long Island Project Manager & Senior Science Advisor Louise Harrison justifying its federal acquisition.

Other opportunities to protect the Braff property, including at the state, local, and private level, separately or in partnership, also may be available.

A Powerful New Resource for Water Monitoring QuickDrops connects scientists, educators, and communities with real-time insights If Tripp Killin’s working title had stuck, we would have just celebrated the launch of our new Shared Data Storage Analysis and Visualization Tool.

“I apologize once again, publicly and sincerely, for coming up with that name,” he joked during our virtual press conference in February.

Instead, the new water quality data platform we introduced for the Long Island Sound watershed and region (including the waters off the south shore of Long Island) is called QuickDrops.

Tripp may not have nailed the name, but he was instrumental in conceptualizing, organizing, and funding this revolutionary shared data storage, analysis, and

visualization tool. As Executive Director of the Jeniam Foundation and a leader of the Long Island Sound Funders Collaborative, he helped conceive the idea, gather the partners, find the dollars, and provide vital feedback at every stage.

Our digital projects manager & designer Martin Hain, however, gets credit for coining QuickDrops, and as that name suggests, this new, free online tool gives water-quality data collectors an easy platform to post their data and users an easy place to access it. High-quality data can now be used by the full community of stakeholders seeking to better understand and more effectively communicate the health of Long Island Sound: monitoring groups, community scientists, beach and

water resource managers, government agencies, researchers, and educators.

“When we have more data, we can make better decisions in managing water resources,” says Peter Linderoth, Save the Sound’s director of healthy waters and lands.

Save the Sound and other early users had already entered data from hundreds of locations before the launch, and the value of QuickDrops will continue to grow as more is entered.

>

LEARN MORE

at QuickDrops.org

Cold Man and the Sea Removing 558 abandoned lobster pots Nico Acuña Perales doesn’t measure winter cold by temperature or wind chill. He counts layers. And the coldest days out on Long Island Sound during the first months of 2025, the count was seven.

It started with a thin long-sleeved shirt, then a regular t-shirt, a thin breathable base layer, and a fleece. On top of that, he bundled into a waterproof fleece-lined winter jacket and a matching waterproof fisherman’s bib and jacket.

That doesn’t include the warm socks, waterproof fleece-lined pants, insulated winter fishing boots, the beanie, winter collar, polarized sunglasses, winter work gloves, and rechargeable hand warmers.

“There are pros and cons about working in the winter,” says Nico, our fisheries technician. “In the winter, you don’t get thirsty and sweaty like in the summer, and you don’t have to deal with the hot sun.

I like working in the winter.”

Good thing—between January 1 and March 15, Nico went on 22 trips, hauling in 558 abandoned lobster traps as part of the Lobster Trap Recovery and Assessment Partnership with The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk, Project Oceanology, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County, and Remote Ecologist. Since the lobster fishing industry cratered after the 1999 season, more traps have been left behind, ghost fishing and harming marine life.

To date, our Soundkeeper team, in

partnership with local fisherman, has retrieved 1,976 traps in 83 trips—roughly two dozen per outing since the project began in the fall of 2022. They have released hundreds of lobsters, black sea bass, tautog, cod, blue crabs, and other animals that had been caught in the untended traps.

The lobster trips are finished for the season.

Nico is expected to be back at it for 10 trips when the weather dips again next fall.

SoundBites Spring 2025 | 7

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Your Guide to Long Island Sound’s Water Quality Curious how your favorite beach scored?

Our biennial 2025 Long Island Sound Beach Report is now available. See grades for nearly 200 public and private beaches, explore trends in water quality, and learn how your support helps keep the Sound safe for swimming. Scan the QR code to download your copy today!