DEEP: Pandemic sends more service calls out to the Sound
Complaints surged from 886 to 1,109 in 2020
Eight abandoned boats. Three theft complaints. Two disorderly conducts.
And one call for turkey enforcement.
Personnel from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection responded to more than 2,700 calls for service on Long Island Sound in the past three years.
Nearly half, or 1,205, were for recreational marine fishing enforcement in towns all up and down the Connecticut coast.
But there was only one for turkey enforcement — on July 22, 2020, in Bridgeport.
The data, provided by DEEP, doesn’t include details of the calls, but does note whether they resulted in warnings, infractions or arrests. Bridgeport’s turkey call did not.
Overall, in the past three years, the Sound saw 25 arrests, 222 infractions, 132 written warnings and 69 verbal warnings, most related to fishing regulations. Data show that 2020 has outstripped the other two years by about double on several different fronts.
Though the Coast Guard takes the lead on waterrelated emergencies like search and rescue operations, DEEP has dedicated personnel for Sound-related calls based out of its Marine Headquarters in Old Lyme.
The data show a big uptick this year — a reflection, state officials said, of residents wanting to get outside when they can during a time of pandemicinduced quarantines and lockdowns.
In 2018 and 2019, there were 734 and 886 Soundrelated calls, respectively.
In 2020, there have been 1,109 already.
Will Healey, a DEEP spokesman, said the surge is reflected even more in the agency’s statewide calls
— 12,315 so far this year, compared with 3,956 in
2019, a more than threefold increase.
“We believe it is related to the pandemic, with a lack of indoor options leading to a significantly higher number of people seeking outdoor recreation opportunities,” Healey said.
Not surprisingly, the most calls come during the summer months — 316 from July to September
2018, then 358 and 455 for the same periods in 2019 and 2020.
Geographically, DEEP was called more times to Milford — 344 times — than any other municipality on the Sound.
That could be for several reasons, Healey said.
For one, Milford is home to the popular Silver Sands State Park.
But DEEP also gets lots of calls related to striped bass fishing violations both on the Housatonic River and the shore of the Sound, where Healey said poaching of small wintering bass is known to occur.
And the state is required to check shellfish beds there eight times per
month per a memorandum of agreement with the federal FDA, Healey said, which also accounts for more enforcement visits.
The Housatonic estuary — where fresh and saltwater mix — shared by Milford and Stratford is an example of the economic importance of the Sound, the state’s largest and most important natural re
source, which contributes $5.5 billion to the regional economy, according to DEEP.
“The Housatonic River is a major factor in the commercial shellfish industry for oysters as relays occur transporting seed oysters to licensed grants on Long Island Sound, so it is constantly being monitored,” he said.