Mission Statement :
To promote and foster understanding and stewardship of coastal ecosystems
through research and education
CRESLI NEWS
The Montauk whales are back in 2008!
Dr. Artie Kopelman (CRESLI's president
and Adjunct Associate Professor of Marine Sciences at
Dowling College) and students from his Dowling College
Whales of Long Island just returned from a
research whale watch cruise in the waters around Montauk on
the Sea
Wife IV. On this 9 hour
trip, they spent 5 hours amongst approximately 24 finback
and several minke whales. There have been whales near
Montauk for a few weeks now, feeding on the large supply of
sand eels and other prey. It's been 6 years since
they've been here in good numbers for an extended period.
Let's hope this a reversal of the trend over the past 6
years.
These trips are important research and fund-raising
efforts for CRESLI.
We have encountered over 400 humpbacks (nearly 50%
of the Gulf of Maine stock) in our 7 trips to the Great South
Channel. With the assistance of the Whale Center of New
England, we have photo-identified 148 different whales during these
trips.
Whales and dolphins of the Gulf Stream
waters off of Long Island at Veatch and Block Canyons,
September 7-10, 2007,
click here for a photo gallery (Finback, humpback, and
sperm whales; bottlenose, common and Risso's dolphins).
Offshore whale
DVD videos available for purchase,
click here
Seal walks for groups of 10 or
more (school groups,
scouts, etc.) have to be scheduled separately and can be
scheduled on dates other than those listed. Please
send an e-mail with your requests, by clicking on this link
to Dr. A. Kopelman
EDUCATORS: For information about CRESLI cruises, walks,
lectures, other programs, and availability of in-service credit please
click here.
CETACEAN SIGHTING NETWORK: If you've seen any whales, porpoises, or dolphins
while you were out on the water, CRESLI would like to hear from you.
Click here to get to a sighting report form
Photos (by others) of Long Island's Coastal Biota and Ecosystems:
click here
CRESLI
and Dowling College are teaming up with
SEANET (The Seabird Ecological Assessment Network) to
help perform important research via beached bird surveys.
These surveys are being carried out to identify and record
information about bird mortality along the northeastern
coast. Data collected by SEANET volunteers are used to
examine the spatial pattern of bird carcass deposition and
how it varies across time. Because regular monitoring of
beached birds has not been done in this region, these
surveys will provide baseline information about bird
mortality as well as help detect mass mortality events such
as oil spills. Seabirds are especially sensitive to
petroleum and other pollution, because the physical
properties of oil degrade the insulating and waterproofing
properties of feathers, and ingestion or inhalation of oil
can also poison birds. Because there is a large amount of
shipping traffic offshore, there is a great risk to seabirds
from both large spill events and small-scale discharge of
waste from boats on a daily basis. Numerous other threats
such as contaminants, diseases, and offshore development
threaten coastal and marine birds, which can serve as
indicators of ecosystem and human health.
All images, videos and text contained within these web pages of this site are
COPYRIGHTED and may not be commercially reproduced, or utilized in any
manner, without the prior written consent of the owner, The Coastal Research and
Education Society of Long Island, Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
Please
note:
