My phone rang about a month ago, and a polite young man on the other end asked me if I could help him with a school project on the Great South Bay he was finishing up. "Of course," I told him and arranged to meet him the following day. I figured it was some kid who pulled my name off a website, or saw something I'd written in this magazine. He was probably doing a paper on the decline of the oyster industry or the Hurricane of 1938.
When I met Rob Van Wyen the next day, my first question was, "OK, how are you related to Bud?" The Van Wyens are one of the families of Dutch heritage who built West Sayville, and guaranteed its place in history as the onetime center of the nation's oyster industry. For much of the 20th century, Bud reigned as mayor of West Sayville from his Main Street Service Station which, for many years served as the home of the Sayville Chamber of Commerce. Typical of the West Sayville Dutch, Rob had something quietly tucked up his sleeve...backtobaysics.org.
Van Wyen, a graphic artist, assembled a group of local people who are connected to the Bay and encouraged them to tell their stories. Carl LoBue and Chris Clapp of the Nature Conservancy, Chris Quartuccio of the Blue Island Fish Market (a fantastic, new fish market on the corner of Montauk Highway and Seville Blvd. in Sayville), Kenny Stein from Sayville Ferries, and a host of others (including myself) are featured on the website and on a series of posters showing up all over Sayville which encourage people to take a minute and understand that they live on the shores of one of our region's great bodies of water, and one that is under constant threat.
Back to Baysics encourages us all, no matter what we do for a living, to stop and realize what role the bay has played in our lives. Van Wyen points out that with the decline of the Bay's once powerful role as a local economic engine, many people have forgotten about its importance. "With awareness being raised, Back to Baysics hopes to offer ways in which people, as a community, can give back to a body of water that has essentially brought them together."
When I met with Rob, I was struck that despite the difference in our ages, and not knowing each other, we really came out of the same mold. Neither of us could imagine living away from the sea, we both always had, in the back of our head, a plan to return to the South Shore to make a life, and are both, albeit from different points of view deeply appreciative and worried about our Bay.
Rob's website is not asking for money; it's not asking you to call your local politician. It is, however, making some really solid recommendations on what each of us can do, in his or her own life, to have a positive impact on the Bay. Plant your garden with indigenous species, which requires less watering and fertilizer to keep beautiful, engage in good boating practices, (no garbage overboard!) keep your septic system in a good order, pumping out before there's an overflow, adopt a pack in-pack out mentality when you go to the beach: whatever you can carry in, carry it out. Hauling garbage off the barrier beaches is energy-wasting and expensive!
The best recommendation is to go, right now, and check out Rob's fantastic website. You'll want to head right out and admire the Bay, as if we really need another excuse to do that!
Doug Shaw, a Sayville High School English faculty member, can be found most weekends working on or enjoying his boat on the Great South Bay
Note: All information on this site is subject to change; all details must be directly confirmed with service establishments.
Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service and Privacy Guidelines.
