With support from our Quogue Stewardship community, CCE Marine’s Back to the Bays team raised and deployed 3 rounds of spat-on-shell oysters this summer, utilizing our Quogue floating Restoration Raft!

Southampton Town officials joined CCE Marine staff to help deploy our 2026 round of spat-on-shell oysters on our restoration reef in Tiana Bay.

CCE Marine staff visiting Hampton Bays Middle School’s entire 6th grade to connect students with oyster reef, eelgrass and coastal habitat restoration!

This work has been funded in part through our Town of Southampton Community Preservation Fund Water Quality Improvement grant.

Our new Redwood Facility in Sag Harbor is already serving nicely as a new shellfish nursery for growing out juvenile hard clams and spat-on-shell oysters!

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!

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

Shellfish 101 - first Stewardship Session of the season

When the 2023 scallop season opened in New York State waters on Monday, November 6, it seemed like the East End harvest was going to be a meager one for the fifth consecutive year – but Shelter Island’s baymen and residents joyously embraced a few bountiful days once town waters opened the following week.