Our Quogue Junior Ambassadors came out to help us deploy the first round of summer 2025 spat-on-shell oysters in our Quogue Oyster Reef (established summer 2024).

Kim and Kate head out to monitor our Quogue Oyster Reef, collect scientific data, and clean the spat-on-shell oysters growing in our restoration raft. It may have been a rainy day for our dedicated staff, but not for the oysters. The reef is absolutely thriving!

Checking on last year’s Sag Harbor oyster reef planting off Steinbeck Park, and bolstering the reef with another 100K spat-on-shell oysters!

Installing Oyster Restoration Raft in the waters of our Quogue Stewardship Site. Spat-on-shell oysters will improve water quality as they filter feed and grow, and eventually be planted in Quogue Village waters to bolster our newly restored oyster reef!

2025 marks the 10-Year Anniversary of Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Back to the Bays Initiative!

Shellfish 101 - first Stewardship Session of the season

Read our 2024 Back to the Bays Impact Report for a full review of the our 2024 projects and progress.

Our Back to the Bays Team has been busy to say the least this summer! The majority of our fieldwork, and plant and animal care in our shellfish and coastal plant nurseries takes place during these warm weather months. And it takes a lot of hard work to keep everything thriving and growing.

Back to the Bays is thrilled to share the success of our recent art and awareness event, This is Seaweed, hosted at Ashawagh Hall in East Hampton. The opening reception on July 19th was a remarkable evening, with a tremendous turnout and an incredible show of support for our Back to the Bays Seaweed Initiative.

Thanks to funding by East Hampton’s Community Preservation Fund, CCE Marine Program has been working in many waterbodies within East Hampton to identify where the highest levels of groundwater nutrients enter the water, with the goal of mitigating algae blooms and impoving water quality.