The Northeast Maritime Industry
Sandy beaches like this are a favorite destination spot for bathers, and for many people, the sandier the beach, the better. However, there are many areas of our coasts that have little to no sand, but instead have various rocks and pebbles of all shapes and sizes.
To people in the Northeast, scenes like this are the norm. In this picture of Orient Point, NY, the landscape has been shaped by the receding glaciers of the last ice age, approximately 10,000 years ago. As the glaciers receded, they left behind all the material that they had picked up along their advancement from the Hudson Bay region. Imagine a glacier, which is similar to a flowing “river” of ice and snow, being a school bus, and all the rocks and debris seen here were the children picked up along the bus’s route to school.
The heavier, larger rocks were dropped off first as the glacier melted. As the melt-water flowed, it took with it smaller sand and pebbles, with the smallest, lightest material being carried the farthest. On this beach along the South side of the North Fork of Long Island, the smaller-sized sand grains are present. The larger-sized rocks are on the Northern coast, since they were deposited first.
The glaciers did more than just bring rocks to the region; they actually carved out the landscape. An archipelago formed, stretching from New York City all the way up to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Two of the more well-known islands in this chain, Long Island (as seen in the fore ground) and the government-owned Plum Island, are seen here. These islands are composed of material dropped off by the glacier, and were not present prior to the last Ice Age.
The coastlines of the American Northeast resemble that of Plum Island’s shore. Composed of material called glacial erratics , the many rocks and boulders strewn along the beach extend all along the sea floor. This ship is floating atop a 350 ft. deep hole in Long Island Sound, and the deep, dark and cold waters of the region from Long Island North to Nova Scotia hold more than just mysteries to mankind; they are home to a vast assortment of marine life.
Humans have found that the marine life of these types of waters are a vast source of food. Traps such as this are dropped in the deep waters along the coast to catch the animals crawling along the sea bottom. Perhaps one of the most famous, and one of the most expensive to purchase, animals is the crab. Crabs have long been a favorite food source of this region, with the crab fishing industry being a major contributor to local economies.
The crab is a very specialized animal, with 4 pairs of legs, and a pair of claws made from modified legs. The claws are modified appendages , which the crab uses to navigate in the dark depths of the water. Its claws are used to capture and cut up prey. These powerful claws can also be used in defense against predators, and are the reason why lcrabs may have rubber bands around their claws when you buy them alive in a seafood shop.
Some relatives of crabs, called lobsters, don't have claws, making them easy to catch. They are so easy, in fact, that the fishing season consists of only 3 days in late July so that the species does not get over-fished . Divers will stick a little wand into pockets of coral reefs, and use it to “tickle” lobsters out of hiding and into a sack. They live in the crevices found in coral reefs.
Crabs are part of a larger group of animals called Arthropods . Arthropods have colonized land, marine, and fresh water areas. Some even inhabit the air, having evolved flight! Various species are extremely diverse, and include lobsters, barnacles , spiders, scorpions, and insects .
In the 1800’s, lobsters near Long Island were viewed as pests, and were actively hunted and used as fertilizer. Lobsters are slow growing, and without any restrictions, populations shrunk. By the turn of the century, lobsters were discovered to be a tasty food source, and were also found to be an economical industry as well. Between human predation, warmer waters in the region, and rampant diseases, lobsters are now a rare and highly desirable commodity, and their prices reflect that. The lobster population of Long Island Sound, for example, has been decimated by bacteria and parasite infections. So next time you sit down to a couple crab legs or a surf & turf dinner, be glad that it is the crustaceans that have become a favorite food source…
and not the Insects, spiders and bugs!