Collaborations 2015-2022
MANA MADE JEWELRY
Mana Made Jewelry partnered with us to create a "Back to the Bays Jewelry Line", inspired by our local waters and designed to give back to the bays. Mana Made transformed castings of real marine specimens collected from our Marine Center in Southold into beautiful, wearable art. The first piece in this line featured a hand-casted seahorse transformed into a necklace. Newly added to the jewelry line was a Bay Scallop Cuff, Sea Pod Earings, and a Kelp Wave Cuff. Proceeds from each piece was donated in support of our research and restoration work. Proceeds from the seahorse necklaces specifically supported CCE’s Seahorse Conservation Initiative (Learn More). View the Back to the Bays Line and purchase from their website Manamadejewelry.com.
Gurneys Resorts
In 2018 Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program and Gurney’s resorts kicked off a collaboration centered on making Gurney’s Star Island Resort property a partner site for marine science based education and shellfish restoration in Lake Montauk.
CCE Marine Program educators worked with Gurney’s Kids Club to provide hands-on marine science education to resort and marina guests. Kids Club participants had the opportunity to observe local species during seining expeditions.
Gurney’s also hosted one of our FLUPSYs (floating upweller system) that is capable of helping grow millions of clams and oysters in support of local shellfish restoration efforts. In addition to housing a FLUPSY, the Gurney’s Star Island Marina was home to a new oyster reef, permitted by the NYSDEC to receive up to 100,000 oysters per year for the next ten years-resulting in the potential for 1,000,000 spat-on-shell oyster reef to benefit the health of Lake Montauk! The spat-on-shell oysters will help improve water quality, enhance local oyster populations, and provide important underwater habitat for local fish species.
Gurney’s committed funds and support to ensure these important efforts continue on a long term basis, and we are welcoming donations in support of expansion of these important initiatives, to help meet our ten year spat-on-shell oyster reef restoration goal.
The Great Peconic Race
In early 2016, Cornell Cooperative Extension Marine Program was selected as the beneficiary of proceeds from the Great Peconic Race, the annual paddle race around Shelter Island. Funds would be directed towards a Back to the Bays Stewardship Site in the Sag Harbor/Shelter Island area. This site combines numerous water quality improvement-based projects designed to increase the number of filter feeding shellfish, increase the amount of essential eelgrass habitat availability in the area, and engage the public in these stewardship based projects. Thanks to the Great Peconic Race, private donors, the paddling community, and all other supporters, we are continuing our shellfish & habitat restoration work at this site in 2017 and beyond!