What Makes Long Island Sound Special?
Long Island Sound is an estuary, a place where salt water from the
ocean mixes with fresh water from rivers and the land. Long Island
Sound is unique in that it has two connections
to the sea – The Race to the east and the East River to the
West – and several major rivers.
The Sound provides feeding, breeding, nesting and nursery areas
for a diversity of plant and animal life, and contributes an estimated
$5.5 billion per year to the regional economy from boating, commercial
and sport fishing, swimming, and sight-seeing.
More than 8 million people live in the Long Island Sound watershed,
and the associated development has increased some types of pollution,
altered land surfaces, reduced open spaces, and restricted access
to the Sound.
People throughout New England and New York all have a stake in
Long Island Sound. The entire coastline of Connecticut and part
of New York sit on Long Island Sound. Eighty percent of the fresh
water entering the Sound comes from rivers that drain states as
far north as Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Long Island Sound is so important that in 1987 was designated
as a National Estuary. The Sound and its resources need you –
who live on the Sound, who live upstream away from the Sound, and
who visit – to help protect the Sound from pollution. To learn
more about estuaries, check out: Learn
About Estuaries
What can I find on this Site?
On this website you can learn about what Long Island Sound is
and where to find information about the vast array of environmental
issues that impact the Sound. You find information and links to
understand issues that impact the waters, land and air in the State
of Connecticut and the waters of Long Island Sound.
To learn more about LIS and the programs to protect and restore
it one should visit the Long
Island Sound Study website:
|