By Tom SchlichterSpecial to NewsdayUpdated May 17, 2023 4:20 pm

Getting around in Kismet really isn’t hard. Just step off the ferry and head south toward the ocean until you see Pasta Sunday. From there, make a right and continue until spotting Island Hopper. Turn right and you’ll pass Forbidden City before making another right at Come What May. Now, a left immediately before The Kismet Taj Mahal sends you back toward the ferry dock and center of town.

These are just some of the “addresses” you’ll find along the handful of streets in Kismet, one of Fire Island’s 17 communities that, combined, have roughly 430 year-round residents. Kismet itself boasts 53 families. These names won’t show up in a GPS. Instead, you can find the names of 250 of the 265 houses on a colorful map illustrated by a local artist and sold to help raise funds for the fire department.

“As you might guess from the house names, there’s a ton of fun to be found in Kismet,” said Sam Wood, 63, a full-time resident who moved to Kismet with his family at age four and owns the home Wood Stock. “There’s also a lot of history.”

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Fire Island News

By Karl Grossman

A new way to grow eelgrass is being pursued off Barrett Beach on Fire Island. The concept is that of Robert (Rob) Vasiluth. And its development originates with 9/11.

Vasiluth, an operating engineer from Suffolk County, was in Manhattan hoisting a section of a sign high up on the Renaissance Times Square Hotel when just a few miles to the south he saw the World Trade Center being struck.

“I saw the second plane hit,” recounts Vasiluth. “I went home to my family” in Commack, he said, feeling “so terrible.” And the next day he was at Ground Zero, part of a bucket brigade that hand-to-hand was moving debris. Soon his task was cutting steel so corpses could be found in the pile

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By Earth Day 2050, large swaths of Jones Beach could start to disappear.

In 2080, the historic Montauk lighthouse and Orient Point may be on their own islands, cut off from the rest of Long Island by newly formed rivers.

At the end of this century, Fire Island may be little more than a sandbar separating the Atlantic from Great South Bay. And South Shore coastal neighborhoods from Freeport to Hampton Bays could be uninhabitable.

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Commercial and research activities tied to the ocean — such as boating, tourism, ferries, fishing and wind farms — could create as many as 60,000 jobs on Long Island by 2051, according to a new report.

The economic sector, called the “blue economy” by the report’s authors, consists of six components: aquaculture/fisheries, marine research, tourism/recreation, maritime transportation, offshore wind farms and marine construction.

Together, they accounted for 67,700 jobs in 2021, or 5% of the total employment in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

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A large Fire Island inlet carved out by Superstorm Sandy has filled up naturally with sand, prompting concern among baymen, environmentalists and others about increased pollution and greater risk of future “brown tide” algae blooms in nearby Bellport Bay.

In 2012, the storm opened a gap about 1,000 feet wide and 20 feet deep through the Otis Pike Wilderness section of the Fire Island National Seashore, located about two miles west of Smith Point County Park in Shirley.

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Newsday Editorial: https://www.newsday.com/opinion/editorials/dead-whales-offshore-wind-long-island-ijy7ye2r

A dead humpback whale on Lido Beach on Jan. 31. Credit: AP/Seth Wenig

By The Editorial BoardFebruary 5, 2023 4:00 pm

There are lessons to be drawn from the death of a humpback whale stranded on Lido Beach last week.

It’s just that the lessons are unsatisfying.

We know that the giant “Luna,” a male that had swum on earth for more than 40 years, is the second humpback whale to strand in New York since the beginning of December. We know that over 170 of its fellow humpbacks have died in similar ways along the East Coast since January 2016, part of what the federal government calls an unusual mortality event. We know that preliminary findings suggest the creature’s cause of death came from a vessel strike. And we will learn more as samples from Luna’s body are tested.

But there is no perfectly definitive answer for why these mammals are dying in large numbers here and now. Scientists offer hypotheses, including changes in vessel traffic and fishing, and shifts in the behavior of whales who follow their prey. Climate change is warming oceans and marine species are voting with their fins, moving to different locations.

There is no evidence that the whale deaths are related to offshore wind development, according to officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries section, the country’s ocean stewards. More research and careful observations are needed as that development takes place, but blaming the deaths on wind is an alarmist jump, especially given the numbers: For this string of dead whales along the East Coast, necropsies have been conducted on approximately half; around 40% of those examined showed evidence of human interaction — either ship strike or entanglement.

Vessel strikes can happen even with small boats. Entanglement is a bitter experience, which can include whales towing fishing gear for miles and slowing down as they get tired and weak. According to one preliminary analysis of drone images from the lab of Lesley Thorne, an associate professor at Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, approximately 80% of humpback whales observed in New York waters have evidence of entanglement scarring.

Even the afterlife of Luna was touched by our changing environment. The whale could not be buried on the Lido Beach shore because of beach erosion there, says Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin. Instead, Clavin said, after consulting with state and federal officials, the whale was buried in the dunes.

The whales provide a lesson on how difficult it is to truly understand the natural world around us. Our limited information about these gentle creatures comes from painstaking survey work, hours and days in boats and planes, building up catalogs of pictures of whales and distinguishing them by scarring and pigmentation patterns, naming them and tracking them over time. There are only so many whales; there is so much sea.

The more we know, the more we can help, appreciating these creatures, trying to aid them, and stopping our human lives from troubling theirs.

Kurnath says she aims to work “collaboratively and creatively” with the community and Upper Delaware Council to protect the area.

The next superintendent of Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River, in Pennsylvania and New York state, is Lindsey Kurnath, National Park Service (NPS) Northeast Regional Director Gay Vietzke has announced.

“Lindsey knows how to bring people together to share common interests,” said Vietzke. “She values the experience and expertise of park staff and community members and inspires others to work towards common goals. Her experience and energy make her a great fit for the job.”

“I look forward to strengthening and growing the park’s relationship with the Upper Delaware Council along with neighbors and members of the community, so that we can work collaboratively and creatively to protect the unique natural, cultural, scenic and recreational resources of the Upper Delaware River,” said Kurnath. “The park team is exceptional, and I am excited to learn from the talented and dedicated employees as we begin our work together.”

Kurnath comes to Upper Delaware from Fire Island National Seashore, where she has served as deputy superintendent since 2020. There she strengthened relationships with park partners and stakeholders and coached division chiefs to work as a cohesive, interdisciplinary team to address strategic issues and opportunities.

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