Pursuant to the New York State Environmental Conservation Law §13-0302 and as authorized under Laws of New York 2004, Chapter 425, the State of New York ceded to Suffolk County the underwater lands in Peconic Bay and Gardiners Bay, seaward of the 1,000 feet high water mark, between the westerly shore of Great Peconic Bay and an easterly line running from the most easterly point of Plum Island to Goff point at the entrance of Napeague Harbor; to be controlled and managed by Suffolk County for the purposes of shellfish cultivation.

The Shellfish Cultivation Zone map identifies the area within which the County may issue leases for shellfish cultivation. The Cultivation Zone is approximately 17,166 acres and includes sites that were leased during the first ten years of the Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Program in Peconic Bay and Gardiners Bay (Lease Program), as well as, historic, private oyster grants; and other contiguous areas where potential impacts/conflicts of shellfish aquaculture activities on environmental resources/socio-economic concerns will be minimal. New shellfish aquaculture leases are subject to the Annual Acreage Cap Limit and will be limited to a total of 60 additional acres per year, for a total of 600 acres during the second ten years of the Lease Program, also known as Phase II. Unallocated acreage or acreage that is reclaimed by the County may be added to a future lease cycle’s acreage cap limit. Pursuant to the ECL § 13-0302, Map 1 Shellfish Cultivation Zone and Revised Shellfish Cultivation Zone have been filed in the Suffolk County Clerk’s office.

Map 1: Revised Shellfish Cultivation Zone

The Aquaculture Lease Sites map was developed as a planning tool to aide prospective lease applicants, the general public and Lease Program lessees to identify available lease sites without the need for a person GPS device. This map also aided the Division of Planning and Environment in the Department of Economic Development Planning (Department) in the implementation and conduct of the Lease Program. The grid system that is overlaid onto to the Shellfish Cultivation Zone identifies each of the 10-acre lease site with an ID#. Additionally, the historic, private oyster grants were also shown on the map, and were labeled and numbered with an alphanumeric designation. Pursuant to the ECL § 13-0302, Map 2 the Aquaculture Lease Sites and Revised Aquaculture Lease Sites have been filed in the Suffolk County Clerk’s office.

Map 2: Revised Aquaculture Lease Sites

The Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Program Interactive Mapper was created by Suffolk County to increase transparency and aid the public, prospective applicants and leaseholders by making the Shellfish Cultivation Zone coverage, Aquaculture Lease Sites grid system; as well as information collected and discussed during the Ten Year Review accessible in a more user friendly platform. Information on specific lease sites can be accessed by clicking on the site in the mapper; information such as the current status of lease sites, (i.e., whether a site has been leased, has been applied for, or is available for leasing) may be also be obtained. Additionally, for increased convenience, the mapper is now also connected to the Federal and New York State GIS resources.

ALP: Lease Status Mapper

Benthic Habitat Mapping Products

During Phase I of the Lease Program, the Department utilized information derived from the Peconic Estuary Program’s Benthic Mapping for Habitat Classification in the Peconic Estuary to develop the maps below. While these maps depict the Shellfish Cultivation Zone’s respective Aquaculture Lease Sites map grids that were adopted by the County in 2009, these maps may still be useful to potential applicants when researching different areas in Peconic and Gardiners Bays.

Species Diversity and Geophysical Province Boundaries

Sediment Grain Size Distribution