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Nature Conservancy goes underwater Monday, October 21, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Accustomed to buying land to protect it from developers, The Nature Conservancy is taking its approach underwater, acquiring 11,500 acres at the bottom of Great South Bay in Long Island, New York, to preserve its marine life. Taking possession of the underwater property, most of it mud and sea grass once prized for its Blue Point oysters, marks the first time the environmental organization has sought to acquire marine acreage specifically to protect it. "We're hoping that it is a new trend that will catch on," Jordan Peavey, a spokeswoman for The Nature Conservancy, said Monday. Some of the Arlington, Virginia-based organization's earlier land buys in New York, Virginia and Washington included "submerged lands," but only incidentally. The organization also released a report showing how more of the United States' coastal waters and its immense biological diversity could be protected. The report finds some states have submerged land leasing programs with cheap acreage; Maryland, for example, leases for an initial fee of $300 and $3.50 per acre. This latest property, valued at $2 million, covers about 30 percent of New York's Great South Bay, stretching south to Fire Island. It was donated by Bluepoints Co. of West Sayville, New York, a place where local baymen, mostly Dutch immigrants, flourished from the booming oyster industry a century ago. Craig Strong, the company's vice president, said it was too expensive and frustrating to hold onto the fishing grounds while trying to re-establish oysters and clams. Their populations have been declining because of pollution, heavy fishing and predation by many other species, he said. "Every year it's something," Strong said. The company is retaining 1,500 acres to harvest and will now be able to boast that its oysters are being raised in a nature preserve, said Robert Nimkoff, a senior vice president at First Republic Corp. of America, a New York real estate company that owns Bluepoints Co. The bottomland being donated had belonged to the company since 1912. It has been in private hands since the 1690s, when Col. William Smith, an English lord, purchased it for 10 pounds (about $15) from Chief Tobaccus of the Unkechaug Indians. There is no plan to deny boaters' access to the bay waters atop the submerged lands obtained by The Nature Conservancy, said Mike Beck, who heads the organization's marine initiatives. "But we will be trying to come up with the best conservation and use plan for the marine resources of those waters, and the natural marine diversity," said Beck, a marine scientist in Santa Cruz, California. The organization plans to enforce its watch over the bay area by posting signs, installing buoys and patrolling with the help of shell fishermen. "This was geared initially toward folks like shell fisherman," Beck said. "It's not at all our intention to displace them. We've been able to show how to work cooperatively with shell fisherman to identify more sustainable practices."
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