Back to the Bays intern, Rachel Kapllani, reflects on the conclusion of her marsh restoration raft research with us this summer!

CCE Marine staff and volunteer stewards enjoyed paddling out to help deploy Bay Scallops in our Tiana Bay Shellfish Sanctuary!

This work has been funded in part through our Town of Southampton Community Preservation Fund Water Quality Improvement grant, and through the generous support provided to our Hampton Bays Stewardship Site Fund.

Back to the Bays had been busy this summer working to restore oyster reef habitats on Shelter Island and engaging the public every step of the way!

Back to the Bays intern, Rachel Kaplani, completed her senior thesis work with us this summer 2026. Curious about the interactions soil minerals, nutrients, and microorganisms have with plants and their root systems, Rachel has been developing and experimenting with growing methods for cultivating marsh grass, including floating “Restoration Rafts,” which allow grass roots to take up excess nutrients directly from our bays as they grow.

Kim Manzo and Kate Rossi-Snook give us an up close look at our 2026 Seahorse Hotel deployments in Greenport, Southold, Hampton Bays, and Sag Harbor/North Haven Stewardship Sites!

Funded by and in partnership with the South Shore Estuary Reserve Program, CCE Marine has been able to continue restoring “Blue Carbon” habitats, like eelgrass and marsh grass. Learn about how Blue Carbon habitats help mitigate climate change.

In partnership with Kidd Squid Brewing Co. we held a Seahorse Hotel workshop in Sag Harbor. These structures will be deployed in village waters to provide additional habitat for our local seahorse species.

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!

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!

Our Back to the Bays team and CCE experts were joined by 2 VIP donors and the press, for our annual bay scallop seeding in Sag Harbor Shoals eelgrass sanctuary.