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Brown Tides Of Choking Algae Strangling L.I. Bay

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. (CBS) ― The ocean blue in Long Island's Great South Bay has slowly turned into a murky brown, an environmental disaster, some say. For years, brown tides of choking algae have been strangling life in the bay. Action is now being taken to try and turn the tide, if it's not too late.

"We are here in central Great South Bay where we've been having a brown tide boom."

Carl Lobue is a marine naturalist with the nature conservancy now involved in the biggest fight of its life - reseeding the shellfish beds with clams - hoping their filtering action will help control the disastrous brown tide algae blooms now overwhelming the once pristine Great South Bay, from Massapequa to Shinnecock Inlet.

"Which is the very reason we are stocking the bay with adult clams because they can tend to live through this even though they might not reproduce this year," said Lobue.

The Great South Bay was second only to Chesapeake Bay for harvesting clams, eels and crabs.

Two decades ago, proudly producing 100 million bushels of clams a year, those numbers have dwindled 98 percent, costing the local economy a whopping $63 million every year.

Recurring blooms of brown algae produce a chemical that makes it difficult for fish to breathe, and it shades out the light needed by acquatic plants where young fish develop.

"They're getting no oxygen. Everything is at a standstill," said Captree Boatmen Association President Kathy Heinlein-Risi.

Risi says everyone on the bay has fingers crossed that Senator Schumer's plan seeking Federal disaster relief will be heard.

If the government declares the waters a disaster that could open the door to millions in funding to fight the brown tides.

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