By Nicholas Morehead

A few here, several there -- local baymen and area scientists have been seeing them recently. They're juvenile scallops or bugs and their presence is a welcome sign.

Local bayman Ken Clark said he's seen a few here and there -- more

By Nicholas Morehead

A few here, several there -- local baymen and area scientists have been seeing them recently. They're juvenile scallops or bugs and their presence is a welcome sign.

Local bayman Ken Clark said he's seen a few here and there -- more bugs than he's seen in the past two years, as a matter of fact. But he didn't mince his words when asked if a few bugs means the industry is ripe for a comeback.

"We're not seeing enough to represent any harvestable amount for next year."

Steve Lenox, a former bayman who runs Pat and Steve's Restaurant on North Ferry Road said, he's heard of a few bugs being found as well. But as for any significant numbers, "I just don't know," he said.

Mashomack Preserve Director Mike Laspia had heard talk of a few bugs -- particularly off the western shores of the Island. "And I've seen some bugs on the beaches after windstorms. We're not talking great numbers but there are some showing up," he said.

A few bugs may not mean a big comeback for the devastated Peconic Bay scallop population but they are a meaningful indication that a real recovery process may be underway. Since the mid-1980s, scallops have nearly disappeared from many areas of the bay system following repeated appearances of the mysterious "brown tide" algae bloom.

But now it has been years since the last significant bloom and conditions may be allowing "bug" scallops to survive long enough to mature -- a crucial step in any population recovery.

"There's lots of talk of bugs popping up, which is an excellent sign because it means that the environment is healthy enough to provide for larval settlements," said Kim Tetrault, manager of the Cornell Cooperative Extension's shellfish hatchery project in Southold.

"What's interesting about the people who are telling us about the bugs is that they all seem to be involved in aquaculture projects of some kind -- they're finding bugs in their cages that they didn't put there."

With their maximum two-year life cycle, the sight of bugs is particularly encouraging. "This year's bugs are next year's spawners," Mr. Tetrault said. "They spawn, then they die and that's it."

"It's a very encouraging sign for sure ... but it's too early for any tickertape parade," said Peconic Baykeeper Kevin McAllister. "We have to see a growing population for a number of years before we can say we've turned a corner."

Baymen, scientists and gourmets alike would like nothing more than to turn that corner. According to numbers from the county executive's office, baymen harvested 500,000 pounds or $1.8 million worth of scallops from the Peconic Estuary 23 years ago.

But then in 1985 the first brown tide algae blooms appeared and all but decimated the bay scallop population. In 1996, the county reported a total of 53 pounds of scallops harvested in the estuary with a value of approximately $400.

In recent years, the state and county have combined with various local organizations to conduct shellfish reseeding operations in waters all around the Peconic Estuary including Shelter Island.

Mr. Laspia said Mashomack is in its first year participating in a state-sponsored program raising and releasing 175,000 scallops (along with another 175,000 being raised in East Hampton) into local waters off Northwest Harbor, south of Mashomack Point.

Mashomack is also working with researchers at the State University of New York at Stony Brook studying the effects that high concentrations of seeded scallops, clams and oysters have on brown tide. There's some hope that the high numbers of the filter feeders help keep blooms from occurring.

Experts agree it's too early to say if such programs are responsible for any signs of scallops beginning to survive again in their natural habitat.

"The only way to measure for sure the success of a program is with genetic markers" -- a sort of advanced "tagging" system for scallops, Mr. Tetrault said. "The technology is out there and we're looking into that."

Mr. McAllister feels the battle to repopulate East End waters with scallops needs to be waged on several fronts. "We still have to make significant strides in protecting water quality and shellfish habitats," he said, particularly with maintaining crucial eelgrass beds, which serve as a protective haven for juvenile scallops. "We've lost vast acres of eel grass," something Mr. McAllister said is linked with water quality issues such as high levels of nitrogen.

He is also concerned about the impact of residential use of pesticides and herbicides. "There's no question, water quality is linked to land use," he said.

"Plus the predators," Island bayman Mr. Clark said. "The spider crabs, the porgies -- they're able to feed on bugs" all year long.

Scallops are "a tough population to re-establish,"said Dr. Robert Ceratto, a research scientist with Stony Brook who is working with the Nature Conservancy.

Both he and Mr. McAllister stressed that the absence of brown tide is a key to recovery. "It's unpredictable, scientists still do not know enough about predicting its onset," Mr. McAllister said. Another piece of the puzzle that is quietly coming along is how humans can help scallop fertility by manipulating certain growing conditions, such as light.

Dr. Peter DeSanctis, a Shelter Island resident active in Cornell Cooperative Extension's aquaculture training program, has worked extensively with scallops. Along with Southampton College marine biology professor Dr. Steve Tettlebach, the two will be submitting a paper discussing research into how light conditions affect scallop fertility.

"Studies showed that 24-hour light" as opposed to 24-hour darkness or even regular light cycles "increased fertility," Dr. DeSanctis said. "Papers and findings like this, though, they're just a stepping-off place."

While no one seeding operation, fertility project or environmental organization can take any credit,

"none of them hurt," said Wayne Groethe, a bayman for 25 years before becoming marine resources manager at the Nature Conservancy's South Fork Chapter in East Hampton.

He praised the hard work of local baymen like the Clarks of Shelter Island. "The towns have been active," he said, as have organizations like the Cornell Cooperative Extension in Southold as well as his own Nature Conservancy.