Semester by the Sea, Fall 2025

Ospreys, The Environmental Movement, and Kayaking by Caitlin Brislin For this week’s class, we took a trip to North Sea Harbor to go kayaking. We made a few stops along our trip, including Fish Cove, Conscience Point, and a grassy area near the Conscience Point National Wildlife Refuge. While near the grassy area, Dr. Rider pointed out the osprey nesting platforms on the shore. In the mid-1900s, osprey and other birds of prey populations began to decline due to their eggs having much thinner shells and breaking before they could hatch. Around the same time, the use of chemicals in America was rising. DDT, a pesticide, was used in WWII to kill lice and mosquitoes, thus preventing disease. After the war, DDT was used widely as an agricultural pesticide. It was not until Rachel Carson published her book Silent Spring in 1962 that the public recognized that the extensive use of chemicals, including DDT, may have serious negative consequences for the environment. The cause of the thin-shell...

Customs of the Custom House by Aelish Mullaney This week for the MAR 355 Coastal Cultural Experience class we went to the Custom House in Sag Harbor, owned by Henry Packer Dering. Built around 1770, it served a family home as well as the first U.S. Custom House on Long Island when Sag Harbor became a designated Port of Entry in 1789. This had a large impact on the community, as Sag Harbor would become a very prominent trade and whaling spot in the U.S.. The purpose of the custom house was so that all these new resources coming in through the port would be recorded and taxed appropriately by the federal government. This really tied the community in with the government and made it known as a maritime hub.   The home belonged to a Mr. Henry Packer Dering, a revolutionary war veteran and prominent member of the village. Him being so known was vital for his role, as it was probably easier to inspect cargo, collect taxes, and prevent smuggling when you're relatively friendly with everyo...

Native American Hunting and Fishing History by Rocco Maner Mostly everyone has seen the stereotypical image of native Americans only using bow and arrows. While they did have them later, the first Native Americans used the atlatl; pictured in the image above. It is a small wooden handle that acts as a lever in which a miniature spear can be launched from with more force than a person could do on their own. Additionally, the heads of the spear were shaped very distinctly, with a substantially longer body to be wedged deep into the spear itself. The Atlatl was used from the paleo – Indian era to the Archaic periods which would be from 11,000 BCE to 1,000 BCE. This weapon would be used to hunt all kinds of game, including the massive woolly mammoth for a time.   The great woolly mammoth went extinct around about 10,000 years ago for two primary reasons, climate change and hunting. Woolly mammoths were prized game for the sheer size of meat they would provide for native American as wel...

Hurricanes and their threat to Southampton by Kimberly Bagielto Hurricane season, which includes the months of June to November, poses a great threat to coastal communities, including Southampton. Hurricanes are large masses of humid, rotating air in a counterclockwise direction. The three greatest risks associated with hurricanes are storm surge, terrestrial rain, and wind damage, which all cause secondary issues to the community, like erosion and flooding. As a low pressure system, the water is pulled upwards and rises, resulting in a storm surge, where the sea level rises due to the storm. Storm surge can lead to significant coastal erosion and floods of coastal communities. Hurricanes also cause torrential rain since warmer waters result in more evaporation. As the water rises, cools, and condenses, clouds form and release heavy rains that can flood coastal communities. With global temperatures rising, bodies of water are also increasing in temperature, which fuels hurricanes to be...

Shinnecock & Peconic Bays Boat Tour by Aelish Mullaney   Figure 1. Eastern Shinnecock Bay taken from the starboard side of Stony Brook Southampton's “R/V Peconic”. Students went along for a tour of Shinnecock Bay and Peconic Bay with Dr.’s Tara Rider and Kurt Bretsch for the first class of MAR 355: Coastal Cultural Experience. MAR 355 is a field class designed to allow students to introduce students to the rich culture and environments of the Long Island region. Many different types of trips are included, such as museums, beaches, barrier islands, and so much more.  Figure 2: Dr. Kurt Bretsch standing on a jetty in the Hampton Bays. Jetties were built in the early 1900’s to stabilize the foundation for Canals. Most jetties are made from rocks left over from glacial movement and in some cases, old mislabeled or defective tombstones. If tombstones are used, they tend to be in the bottom layer out of eyesight out of respect for the dead.  Figure 3: Dr. Tara Rider giving ...