The Case for Meteorologically Driven Fluctuations in Residence Times of Long Island Waters Subject to Algal Blooms

Exceptionally large algal blooms (“brown tides”) were experienced by the coastal embayments of Long Island, New York, throughout the summers of 1985, 1986 and to a lesser degree in 1987. Great South Bay and the Peconic Bays (Fig. 1) were the areas most affected by this phenomenon, whose outcome was the decimation of their valuable scallop fisheries.