IMEP # 143 - Part 2 - Warm Water And Seafood Disease

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IMEP #143 - Part 2: Clinton Harbor Algal Blooms 1985-87
Sapropel Deposits Hold Cysts and Spores of HABs
"Understanding Science Through History"
Warm Water Proceeds Fish and Shellfish Disease
The Case History of Clinton Harbor 1900-2000
October 15, 2019 Revised to January 2023
This is a delayed report
Viewpoint of Tim Visel – No other agency or organization
Note – Tim Visel has retired from The Sound School, June 30, 2022
Thank you, The Blue Crab Forum^TM for posting these Habitat History reports - over 350,000 views
 
 
A Note from Tim Visel
 
Note – The 1880 to 1920 period was one of increasing and intense heat, beginning in the 1880's south and spreading into the Canadian Maritimes by 1910.  John C. Hammond described it as a period of "great heat waves" but others reported it as the "hot term" and basically described the New England heat waves of the 1890's and for New England's and mid-Atlantic central cities there was nothing great about them.  Small lakes and ponds as heat sinks failed to cool allowing for ice formation then a critical commercial product for central cities resulting in a "ice famine" in 1899 – the same year that reported massive lobster die offs and Connecticut now declared brook trout (a native species) to be practically extinct and started to import, brown and rainbow species as those could tolerate the increasing heat. 
 
The heat was to change how peopled viewed shore life.  A growing heat had caused a rush to cooler shorelines as medicine had long ago linked heat to bacteria disease.  Olive Tubbs Chendali a well-known Niantic Connecticut historian wrote that in the 1860's Rev. John James McCook an Episcopal Rector of Hartford brought family to the shore because his eldest son John was ill and his doctor advised "shore breezes."  Coastal air was cooler and for over a century was a medical solution to several respiratory ailments.  Their shoreline property is now McCook Point a town park in East Lyme.  A few miles to the east in Waterford is the 1932 Seaside Sanatorium built as a treatment center for children who had contracted tuberculosis which is today a state park.  Its name holds why this location was chosen as sea air was once considered healthy.  A long hot summer acted to warm the Long Island Sound waters but not as quickly as land surfaces.
 
The heatwave of 1896 would forever change the outlook of Theodore Roosevelt – and helped him understand the hardships of those who could not buy ice – as prices rose in August 1896.  This heat wave killed over 1,000 people in New York City.  (NPR – Fresh Air show August 11, 2010 – The Heat Wave of 1896 and The Rise of Roosevelt reviews the book/author Edward Kohn).  We could learn much by researching what this intense heat did to shallow water fisheries - my view, T. Visel.
 
The Heat Waves of the 1890's
 
A shortage of ice was called an "Ice famine" and spread fear among the poor as chipped ice was the only way to prevent dehydration.  Seeing ice merchants withhold ice to increase prices Roosevelt using his new police commission authority took ice from storage and gave it away – free.  The ice famine started the winter before as New England ponds and lakes did not freeze, it was that warm.  An August 25, 1898 New York Times article headline read "An Ice Famine Threatens New York City is Unaffected So Far, but Prices are Advancing Outside."  The temperature of sea water increased but not as rapid as shallow ponds or small lakes suppliers of commercial fresh water ice.  In 1899, the Hudson River ice crop failed sending ice companies to Maine to procure needed supplies of ice.
 
And while the increase of seawater temperatures improved oyster setting, it no doubt created oxygen deficits in deeper waters then cultured for oysters which started to die (suspected to be sulfide toxicity).  It is at this time Western Connecticut Oyster companies started leasing grow out grounds in eastern waters or eastern CT coves with cooler waters.
 
Western oyster companies appealed for government help and in 1890 sought a survey of Long Island Sound to investigate oyster plantings that came up black with rotting meats.  These black shells and rotting meats were described in New Haven Harbor as well after breakwater construction.  (George McNeil, personal communication T. Visel, 1980's).  Oyster companies then looked at organic sludge (sewage) and dredged material as causes of these sulfide smells.  Oysters did not grow because they stop feeding during "sulfide events" (See York River 1937 investigation conducted by Paul Galtsoff) and human pollution was a frequent target for declining oyster habitat quality by the oyster industry.
 
But Long Island Sound was not the only area that witnessed "stagnant waters" rotten egg smells or fish (shellfish) kills, most if not all New England coves that were shallow and had restricted water exchange rates (residence times) experienced them.  This was the rise of putrid waters, black waters and rotten egg smells found so often in the historical fisheries history – the rise of a marine compost sapropel (Black Mayonnaise).  This is why this 1890 report of "the deck" or natural science observations did not align with then analytical measures as such sulfide events are episodic and broken by energy or sudden temperature change.  You could say that during this period 1880-1920 New England in bays and coves experience a gradual blue crab jubilee – extended perhaps but never the less just as deadly.  A suspected thermocline formed and Long Island Sound had an extended hot period without "an overturn" familiar with lakes and ponds.  Following this pronounced "hot term" Blue Crabs along Connecticut's coast became abundant.
 
One of the most studied for fall overturns (bringing sulfide water to the surface) is The Narrow River and Pettaquamscutt lakes of Rhode Island.  Here deep salt ponds form thermoclines and become sulfide rich on the bottom during summers with very little wind or mixing.  In 1969, Leaflet #27 Observations Of The Stability Of Stratification in Pettaquamscutt Lake fall 1968 (by Richard R. Sisson RI Division of Conservation Department of Natural Resources) highlights that no fall overturn occurred because of frequent storms and high winds broke the thermocline before waters cooled.  A similar thermocline can happen in Long Island Sound during a period of high heat and little mixing from storm winds.  I believe that is what caused the oyster companies to ask for help and surveys in 1890.
 
In the end, I supposed that oyster companies were not pleased with the final US Fish Commission report written by E. E. Haskell in 1892 who just applied drinking water criteria (that is all they had) that did find higher ammonia levels in Long Island Sound but overall gave the oyster growers little to be concerned about.  That observation bias continues today that the water (because climate and temperature impacts) change from natural events are key to sea life but is frequently absent in today's studies.  That would change in the largest sulfide event for the region the "plague that descended upon Rhode Island" eight years later and recorded by Professor A. D. Mead of Brown University – written in 1898 at perhaps the height of the great heat when he detailed in the journal of Science Magazine,
 
"An Investigation of the Plague which destroyed multitudes of fish and crustacean during the fall of 1898."
 
What had been a deep water, sulfide kill for the oyster industry after years of continued heat (now moved into the shallow waters) creating red tides, chocolate waters and huge fish kills.
 
The Narragansett Bay Jubilee of 1898
 
The enormous fish kill – quoting Dr. Mead had alarmed the public which focused upon water pollution and starting the Narragansett Bay survey the following year.
 
Dr. Mead's first introductory paragraphs report similar Southern Blue Crab Jubilee observations.
 
After heavy July 1898 rains, Dr. Mead reports the following:
 
"During the last two months the inhabitants of Rhode Island witnessed the following remarkable phenomenon.  The water of a considerable option of the Bay became thick and red, omitting an odor almost intolerable to those living nearby.  The situation became alarming when, on the 9^th and 10^th of September (1898), thousands of dead fish, crabs and shrimps were found strewn along the shores or even piled up in windrows.
 
During the last of August, throughout September and a part of October streaks of red or "chocolate" water were observed from near Quonset Point and Prudence Island, north to Providence, and, on the flood tide, up to Seekonk River, nearly to Pawtucket, a range of about fifteen miles.  In other parts of the Bay, as far as could be learned, the phenomenon had not been observed.
 
On the 8^th and 9^th of September the water became extremely red and thick in various localities from East Greenwich to Providence, and the peculiar behavior of the marine animals attracted much attention.  Myriads of shrimps and blue crabs, and vast numbers of eels, menhaden, tautog and flatfish came up to the surface and to the edge of the shore as though struggling to get out of the noxious water.  Indeed, the shrimp and crabs were observed actually to climb out of the water upon stakes and buoys and even upon the iron cylinders which support one of the bridges and which must have been very hot in the bright sun."
 
The deep water, sulfide kills of black mayonnaise likely a sapropel compost now had moved into shallow basins.
 
Clinton Harbor and Sandy Island (Cedar Island today)
 
George McNeil told me that his father, J. P. McNeil, a New Haven oyster grower, had a list of rivers that Connecticut oyster growers would not purchase Chesapeake Bay seed oysters.  Once planted, they would soon die.  US Fish reports may contain some information about these seed oyster beds but I suspect two oyster pathogens MSX or Dermo were present long before we had the ability to detect them.
 
I believe that many of the winter kills reported by the oyster industry were from high temperature sulfide and disease related events.  It was in the "back waters," areas poorly flushed behind tidal restrictions (barrier spits) that in the heat sapropel likely formed here first. In this low oxygen compost that collected the pathogens that would peak during the hot cycles.  These are the cysts or dormant stages of life forms that thrive in hot oxygen-poor cycles – in the organic matter we call black mayonnaise, but really is sapropel.  John Trefrey at the University Florida of Technology Video 5/11/16 Running A Muck - Our Six Decade Legacy To The Indian River Lagoon, Ocean Science Lecture Series describes a muck as containing organic matter to 20%.  (Sapropel is a compost rich in fats, oils and wax esters with high percentage of water by volume).  It is almost Jelly like consistency with a large percentage of water.  Some would infect us as well, I include a possible indicator of pathogens Vibrio cholera in the 1920s and Vibrio parahaemolyticus in the 2000's.
 
When the brown tides, red tides and MSX occurred, they first start in the shallows where it was the warmest.  For example, Clinton Harbor in the 1980's experienced a surge in the flounder parasite Glugea stephani a microspora when years before it was a popular place to catch winter flounder.  MSX, the dreaded oyster disease, started in Clinton Harbor in the shallows at the same time as the brown tides.  Swimmers were also being infected with the blood fluke schistosomatidae termed swimmer's itch or clammer's itch.  Many of the habitat observations at the time came back to what had changed.  Was there a defining habitat link?  From the observations of fishers, all pointed to the buildup of black mayonnaise after the 1951 closure of a barrier inlet called the Dardanells.  This signal would support the surge of ammonia a nutrient that favors the blooms of macro algae.  On the north side of lower Hammonasset River a deposit of "black mayonnaise" grew deep and after Hurricane Gloria suffocated oysters.  When surveying the oysters with members of the Clinton Shellfish Commission this substance reeked of sulfide.  (Personal observations, Clinton Shellfish Survey Post Hurricane Gloria – T. Visel).
 
With that information, area fishers looked for the organic source material for sapropel and came to the conclusion it was leaf litter (most natural) that was trapped in the estuary over time when this breach was closed.  It was trapped and then started to rot.  Eventually this was found not to be the first time this happened.  This led to a Clinton town meeting "to open the inlet to let the mud out," in 1913.  This situation was at the end of the same warm then hot period along the New England seaboard, approximately 1880 to 1920.  This situation was part of the oral fisheries history for the harbor – one connected to its adjacent barrier spit.  They were almost one hundred years apart.
 
After brutal cold of the 1870's, the hot 1890's was quite a shock.  Connecticut especially experienced this change from the killing cold (Most of Connecticut's apple trees were winter killed along with a large amount of livestock in 1873 as temperatures dipped far below -30^oF for days at a time) to now killer heat waves of people.  What started out as subtle temperature change in the 1880's could not be ignored in the 1890's.  The heat now dominated the news as tens of thousands of New England city residents sought summer refuge along cool shorelines, including Long Island Sound.  But in time as year after year of the "hot term" continued, even in time Long Island Sound became hot.  When a group of the United States wealthiest residents built summer houses during this period, they chose a peninsula of land locally known for its afternoon cool shore breezes we call Newport, Rhode Island today.  As the heat continued, so did its seafood impacts.  Some "normal" or familiar species declined (the 1898 lobsters die off) and some southern fish surged in abundance (The black sea bass).  A rare species in the 1900's by the 1920's and 1930's became a popular creel catch of black sea bass.  Once a somewhat rare species in the 1870s blue crabs now surged in 1902.
 
Shallow waters became hot, debris from land sewage, manure, forest waste, wood chips and sawdust, with factory waste filled rivers and streams, putrefying them.  This was the "bad airs" associated with summer diseases that plagued New England's central cities.  And during this period of some of the most horrific fish and lobster dieoffs, eelgrass thrived.  Eelgrass grew to enormous densities called meadows, extending its habitat coverage to depths and areas not seen to 65 feet or more (Nichols, 1920) in this hot and relatively storm-free period.  It is time of heat, few storms and gross human pollution sewage eelgrass thrived.  It was harvested by the ton once dry to make "Cabot's" quilt the first batt household insulation.  (See EC 17-A Peat, Sapropel and Blue Crabs Environment Conservation Thread Blue Crab Forum™ Oct 25, 2018).
 
This was not the climate of the 1870's, the time of the dreaded Northeasters, that so devastated New England port cities, sweeping docks and wharfs into the sea.  It became so destructive that New Haven organized an effort to ask Congress to help the construction of massive breakwaters along its coast to protect maritime industries - New Haven's three breakwaters being the largest effort in Connecticut.
 
At the turn of the century 1904 to 1911 as the last stones were completed on the western wall in New Haven, I'm sure some workers asked themselves "What happened to the storms?"  The breakwater effort that started three decades before was completed in heat and only some strong summer gales.  This was the period of the Great Heat, four decades marked by warm and relatively quiet period, 1880-1920.  In 1896, the worst heat was to come into the shallows.  Rhode Island with its first land grant University Marine Lab on PT Judith Pond recorded the observations of Dr. George Field.  We have this effort to thank for the reports of the shallow water fisheries of salt ponds, especially Point Judith Pond.  In 1896, Point Judith Pond had a massive fish kill and was the reason for funding this early marine lab.
 
A review of historical fish and shellfish records, these "heats" were very hard on the shallows.  They would pick up the heat quickest, and because of the inverse solubility law, warmer water holds less oxygen – that's natural.  It is also natural that such areas were subject to larger fish kills, the so-called dead zones absent of usual shore life or sites of kills themselves.  This is the time of iron sulfate black water deaths, in rivers and bays and more to the south the "Blue Crab Jubilees."  Some of the sulfate black water deaths came from areas of paper mills (The State of Maine).  Sawdust and wood chips rot in slow waters, producing another characteristic symptom – the sulfur smells most often mentioned in the fisheries literature as the smell of "rotten eggs."  [Chickens were mostly free-range then and a tendency to hide eggs resulted in eggs spoiling in the high heat.]  The shell would seal sulfur-reducing bacteria from oxygen.  The putrification without oxygen when hot would produce the "death smell" – those eggs that had rotted in the absence of oxygen, the smell of sulfur or "rotting eggs." 
 
Even though the prevalence of chickens/household coops has declined since the 1890's, the use of the term to describe sulfide presence a century ago has continued to the present time.
 
The heat would drive any elemental or available oxygen to low levels, causing a return of the sulfur cycle sustained by sulfur-reducing bacteria.  Most of the fish and shellfish kills during this time were likely from sulfur bacteria, not human "pollution" as it was described at this time.  We have reports of smelt returning to Connecticut streams containing raw sewage with little impact, as long as it was cold (See IMEP #98 Part 2: Smelt Makes a Comeback, posted October 21, 2021, The Blue Crab Forum™).  Factory wastes were noticeable and usual and certainly did reduce habitat quality but were not the cause of habitat failures of thousands of acres over hundreds of miles of coastline.  These were huge geographic climate shifts.  It was the impact of sulfur-reducing bacteria that habitat wise were most destructive in the shallows during the summer.  Organic matter flowed into streams, dairy farm waste filled brooks, mill and paper waste and human sewage all flowed into the estuaries and here, despite the stress of sulfate reduction of tremendous "food" in dead or organic matter, eelgrass thrived.  Eelgrass became a major forage species for the migration of Brant which also thrived providing duck hunters recreation in numerous hunting clubs.  At a time of many cold water species failures, eelgrass thrived during this period of heat.  However, its habitat clock had almost run out of time.
 
Eelgrass, over time, developed biological features that allowed it to thrive in this growing, harsh sulfide environment.  It could take oxygen in its leaves and more it to it roots – protecting it from sulfide a plant toxin.  It also true that the 1890's are not known for pollution controls.  However, the ability of eelgrass to move oxygen from its leaf to its roots enables it to live in marine soils that were deadly to most other plants or animals.  It complexes silicon (to help protect it from sulfuric acid washes) to resist storm damage and moves oxygen to its roots, protecting it from sulfide in these organic-rich oxygen depleted soils.  It can survive because it has evolved to these harsh conditions over time that would be deadly to other types of vegetation not so adapted.  In the times of fish kills, blue crab jubilees and sulfur smells, some eelgrass thrived.  Some of the expansion of eelgrass/sapropel habitats occurred in times of great habitat stress or failure for other life forms.  It gives rise to the sulfide compost sapropel, organic matter containing sulfur-reducing bacteria that, as part of their energy transfer process, uses sulfate and not elemental oxygen, but oxygen bound to sulfur.  To start the process, they produce sulfide and can complex metals (including aluminum and some mercury compounds) but most frequently iron, giving rise to sapropels blue-black color. 
 
But sulfate-reducing bacteria can complex heavy metals and, overseas, it is used as a heavy metal cleanup material.  Some of the initial research into the affinity of sapropel to complex heavy metals was conducted by the EPA to mitigate acid water mine wastes.  A part of the waste products of sulfate reduction is ammonia – sulfides (toxic) and ammonia (toxic) plus heavy metals, especially aluminum (highly toxic) can all be found purging from eelgrass/sapropel habitats. 
 
But the danger of eelgrass/sapropel habitats does not end here.  The sulfate-reducing bacteria strains that thrive in sapropel are dangerous to seafood (and us) directly.  Here, instead of feasting upon organic matter, some consume the protein of flesh (flesh dissolvers) and shell eaters chinisclastic bacteria as well.  Finally, the ammonia emitted by sulfur-reducing bacteria feed into the harmful algal blooms (HABs).  These algal strains that can use ammonia and few other nitrogen forms, giving them a decided late summer "bloom" advantage when hot weather persists and low oxygen levels favor the sulfate-reducing bacteria in shallow, warm, organic deposits.  It is nearly always in these areas with sluggish or long connections to the sea that bacterial ammonia shifts first occur.  Here, ammonia levels can build up quickly, charged by sapropel, with or without an eelgrass crust.  Most harmful blooms, HABs, start in these upper shallow reaches of coves and bays first and then spread out.  They can produce toxins, which kill oxygen-requiring life, feeding more protein dissolving, sulfur-reducing bacteria on the bottom.  Higher amounts of HAB cysts are found in shallow sapropel deposits (see New York study conducted by Theresa K. Hattenrath-Lehmann et al 2016 Mapping The Distribution of Cysts from The Toxic Dinoflagellate (Polykrikoides in Bloom – Prone Estuaries).
 
Eelgrass/sapropel habitats kill in other ways by direct burial over time or restrict circulation, causing "stagnation."  Examples of this can be found in the fisheries literature.  In very hot weather, eelgrass/sapropel fosters sulfate reduction and opens the door to several deadly aspects of the sulfur cycle.  It is better to think of eelgrass/sapropel as a habitat condition that is the end of cool water oxygen life forms.  Because this habitat type is climate dependent, sapropel is formed during long hot periods and destroyed in cold and storms.  That is why, when sapropel under eelgrass is "thin" and cool, it provides positive habitat services to other species.  However, in time and as eelgrass collects more organic matter (which it needs to do when nutrients are scarce), its habitat clock ends when sulfur-reducing bacteria now generate sulfides, under it which in time and heat, attacks eelgrass roots. Eelgrass grows best in cultivated low organic matter marine soils in cold weather, usually cultivated (cleared) by storms.  Energy both destroys and starts eelgrass habitat succession.  In cold and in sandy soils, it can provide shelter and habitat services that are described as "good," but in time and changed climate conditions, eelgrass helps sapropel form and, in heat, becomes sulfur-enriched killing fields. 
 
That is why during the 1880-1920 period, eelgrass habitat expansion in New England was rapid.  However, as sapropel grew, it weakened eelgrass meadows (monocultures) and makes them susceptible to "compost" disease, such as fungus, and slime molds as the massive eelgrass die offs of the 1930's.  The 1930's into the 1960's were colder and storm-filled.  Eelgrass/sapropel was destroyed, swept away to habitat conditions found before.  When the heat and less storm energy period resumed (post 1972), eelgrass died off again, subject to disease as part of a natural cycle. It started to die off again in very similar pattern as reported in the 1920's to 1930's in the 1980s to 1990s.
 
The impact of climate cycles and habitat changes from it are described by the rise of sapropel without eelgrass, it became so sulfide rich eelgrass could no longer exist.  This is accompanied by the signs of sulfur and the absence of sea life.  That habitat signal was found inside Cedar Island (Clinton, CT), which had several feet of loose eelgrass ooze over once productive softshell clam flats.
 
Sapropel as mentioned during hot, quiet periods a century ago, shares certain characteristics, color, smell and consistency.  It is alarming to those who came across it even a century ago – mostly in the shallows.  These were termed the dead bottoms versus the live bottoms and gave rise to a winter spear fishery for eels below "eelgrass" "the grass that holds eels" (See IMEP #61-A: Eels, Eelgrass and the Bay Scallop Fisheries 1880 to 2000, posted March 28, 2017, The Blue Crab Forum^TM for a description of this winter eel spear fishery.  The American Angler, Vol. 5, 1920).
 
Peat and Compost Habitats
 
Most people see marine humus deposits as peat – humus with plant and root tissue in them, the salt marshes along the coast.  Here marine humus has become peat, fibrous material with a vegetation cover – salt marsh hay.  It (salt marsh) is just compost that has collected in low – energy areas over thousands of years and gradually supported surface vegetation.  But the surface that people see today once started as loose humus, the bacterial composting process in estuaries, below the high tide line similar to ponds and lakes and the most known habitats – peat bogs.  The salt marsh of cold is abundant with springs showing green plant life.  The chemical exchange of oxygen from the air at low tides creates this peat enabling plants to live on it.  To observers, the creeks in the peat have banks with fiddler and marsh crab burrows.  Most birds feed on these banks and shallow areas looking for food.  The salt marsh of heat is a very different place and if extended to signs of sulfide toxicity – the yellowing of Spartina or, in many cases, its dieoff.  It is the chemistry of peat and humus that can turn it into sapropel – with the absence of oxygen.  It is also this same chemistry that was to impact thousands of acres of winter flounder habitat – from heat.  Heat changes the chemistry of salt marshes from the "good" cooler marshes of the 1960's and 1970's.  Salt marshes were often treated as a single isolated habitat type (monoculture) isolated it seems to impacts from land, rainfall, and organic matter from upland (forest) sources.  Most marshes have a fresh water input source that over time was able to deliver vast periodic surges of organic matter especially during floods and tropical storms.  In fact, all of this organic matter helps feed sulfur reducing bacteria in times of heat and lower dissolved oxygen in sea water.  This would produce in high heat sulfides toxic to small winter flounder in the 1990's.
 
Compost is described as a collection of organic substances in the process of bacterial decay and on land dominated by aerobic bacteria – those that live in the presence of oxygen.  Compost without oxygen or anaerobic no or low oxygen bacteria reduce organic matter to primary chemical compounds that are beneficial to plants.  The oxygen bacterial pathway is much faster, than the low or oxygen poor one – and in heat organic matter can collect in deposits in bogs or marshes.  Many fishers observe the formation of organic matter in small lakes or ponds.  After initial dredging or creation, pond and lake bottoms are usually clean or sandy but in time this habitat succeeds or changes to those of a soft/compost community.  (This has been the topic of several IMEP/Environment Conservation posts on The Blue Crab Forum^TM) and the type species and success of fishing may overtime diminish as the lake or pond refills with acidic organic matter.  This chemical process that can ruin fishing is the same one in salt marshes, in high heat low oxygen conditions.  When growing up in Hamden and then later in Madison I was to watch this filling in process in Clark Pond (now the southern edge of Quinnipiac University) and later Madison lakes filled with leaves or in small "ice ponds."  In the Hamden example the "marshes" grew outward, with Madison lakes I suspect leaf raking/leaf fall dumping contributed to habitat faster succession (The Blue Crab Forum™ Report #3, June 12, 2013).
 
Although natural leaf falls over time have created terrestrial bogs and wetlands, most of estuarine research has been directed towards "cultural" eutrophication – the addition of human generated plant nutrients while "quiet" in respects to natural climate cycles.  The emphasis provides a bias that human actions alone can prevent pond and lakes from accumulating organic matter.  To look at pond and lakes as manmade habitats, they all have a lifespan "Habitat Clock" in time, they would need to be dredged again or they, themselves will succeed into marshes or bogs.  In times of ice production, as spring approached the dam weir boards (terminology from herring runs) would be pulled, these areas would revert to pasture lands and oxygen bacteria break down remaining "fall" leaves.  Other times water would be drained in winter to allow ice to kill shoreline vegetation – commonly referred to as a "winter draw down."  Most often however lake and pond associations have found that dredging can stop and reverse habitat succession – but in time organic matter will accumulate again especially in hot weather or when oxygen levels fall in deep waters with a summer thermocline.  Often a pond was dredged for its compost and used as a soil additive.  This layer is oxygen poor as organic matter composting begins.  Most of the time Connecticut farmers simply scooped out pond mud for fertilizer (much before the 1970's environmental regulations) Circular 142 – May 1940 from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station (New Haven, CT) titled "Peat and Swamp Muck for Soil Improvement in CT" by M. F. Morgan – "Swamp muck or peat was used for the improvement of poor, sandy and gravelly soils in some sections of Connecticut at least as early as 1800."  Professor S. W. Johnson – first Director of this station published extensive treatise on the subject in 1878 with data on samples from 23 farmers who were then using such water muck materials as a soil nourishment that has long benefited agriculture. 
 
Natural vegetation leaf fall mixed in with animal waste in streams moving organics down to the sea were often sources of organic matter.  Even in estuaries this compost was utilized for agriculture described as mussel mud or marine mud (See Connecticut Rivers Lead Sapropel Production 1850-1885, posted September 29, 2014, The Blue Crab Forum™ Fishing, Eeling, and Oystering thread).  The renewable aspect of a natural resource to assist plants is an old one although this process greatly changed the quality or quantity of fish habitat in ponds in lakes, it was harvested as a field dressing, mixed with stable manure or peat moss to feed bacterial populations and provide some nitrogen but mostly carbon to developed farm soils.
Marine mud, if left to freeze or be rinsed of rain, was often mixed with beach sand and bivalve shell and sold as special compositions for grass or vegetables.  Although one New Haven fertilizer supplier "Pollard Bothers Improved Fertilizers" who strongly suggested improved formulas upon inspection found to be only Long Wharf New Haven Harbor Mud piled upon Meadow Street (where the New Haven Board of Education's offices are today) was mixed with sand (perhaps from the area just south of the railroad tracks).  It was though that this "improved" expensive fertilizer was harbor mud from an 1860 Long Wharf dredge project (Pg. 31 Report of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, CT 1878).  (After negative reports circulated that this special fertilizer was mostly just beach sand and harbor dredge muck this business soon left for Rhode Island).
 
For small ponds, a "mud scoop" was used (most likely the precursor to drag scoops) with a horse team to remove "mud" from pond bottoms.  This compost was a part of Connecticut agriculture until the 1930's.  To provide a valuable top dressing such applications were used for salt hay fields and vegetable gardens.  A similar technology was often used to clean canals which often had dead ends and low flow speeds where organics would accumulate and form sapropel.  Sulfuric acid from sapropel would impact lock gates and described in the canal building literature.  To neutralize this sulfur acidity farmers sought marine deposits with bivalve shell.
 
Coastal farmers soon realized the value of marine mud on salt hay fields (for carbon sources) and by 1921 mechanical machines were developed and an article in Popular Mechanics refers to this problem.  "It is so impalpably fine that it follows wherever the water runs.  So, it finds its way into the irrigation canals and spreading out overly the land, the best fertilizer in the world, but it would soon fill the canals unless cleaned out frequently" (Popular Mechanics, Jan. 1921, pg. 93.)
 
Farmers were well aware of habitat succession because they witnessed it, and terrestrial composts have become part of the renewable "green" efforts of the last half century.  The concept of composting on land, its soil and agricultural benefit is well known even celebrated in larger habitat ecosystem however subtidal composts remain poorly understood (my view) in marine habitats.  The most commonly used peat today is termed potting soil.
 
CIinton Harbor – The Cedar Island Marina Proposal
 
The dredging of the north side of the Hammonasset River as part of a 1986 marina expansion proposal would detail how dredging removes sapropel buildups.  This proposal was to remove a section of a deep organic deposit – the same deposit that had buried oyster beds after Hurricane Gloria.  Shellfish surveys with the Clinton Shellfish Commission in the fall of 1988 with SCUBA and under water filming (UCONN Undersea Research Center) showed organic debris burial.  (See letter October 25, 1988 from Jeffrey Shapiro).  The Cedar Island Marina proposal has a six-volume biological study of the lower Hammonaset River at the same time a massive change in water quality and biological richness from high water temperatures and low dissolved oxygen happened.  It provides a unique opportunity to review these studies similar to the 1890 sulfide die off in the oyster industry a century before.  The Marina Expansion Proposal with this biological review gives us a view of the status of Clinton Harbor unprecedented perhaps in the amount of data and measurements made by well respected researchers.  While many praised the productivity of this organic deposit quite the opposite was occurring with a shift to the negative high heat sulfur – bacteria cycle.  High organic clay soils could not support eelgrass so this deposit was void of rooted plants.
 
A 1985 December – Habitat Study for the Cedar Island Marina Proposal which was published on July 26, 1986 looked at the makeup of a mud flat.  It contained the results of the mud flat, found them in high in clays.  Habitat Enhancement for Oysters Pg. 17 has this segment (my comments, Tim Vise):
 
"Of the Dry Sample Weight – average sediment sample silt clay ranged from 43% to 91% mean about 70%."  Clays are known for slowing clam and oyster growth and add to soil CEC page 6 comment.  "Benthic samples revealed that over half the sample was 55% were polychaete worms."  (This is a sign of reduced diversity from sulfur cycle, T. Visel) and for the "The edge between the channel and mud flat showed the highest biomass and species richness (pg. 4).  (A 1987 survey with Tom Brennan of the Clinton Shellfish Commission showed massive oyster mortalities, T. Visel).  To further study the mudflats, shallow cores were taken, sediment samples 25 cm about 10 inches deep.
 
The mud snail Nassarius obsoletus in Transect 1 near the retaining wall reached a mean value of 208 per square meter with no oysters observed 17 pg. part 2.  This area was described as extremely "barren" (The mud snail is linked to swimmer's itch, T. Visel).  It is noted that from the flood current strength many fine-grain particles silt and clay are deposited on the mud flats part 3.
 
"The respiration of the marine sediment appeared higher than did the marsh which lead to the observe lower dissolved oxygen readings there.  Part 3 pg. 4.
6.8 acres Part 4, pg. 2
Cores 24 inches by SCUBA Part 4, pg. 3
 
"At site 1 there was a layer of light fluff or unconsolidated matter about four inches deep with over laid a firm bottom.  When cores were taken the second bottom could be felt below the fluff layer.  A person standing there would easily sink 8-10 inches, part 4 pg. 4. These cores contained the remains of softshell clams."
 
I have often observed, long ago, softshell clam beds under organic deposits that meet the definition of a compost.  Shellfishers on Cape Cod especially those who fished Lewis Bay took me out to examine leaf remains they called "oat meal" over areas that once produced scallop and softshell clam catches (See IMEP #28A: Caution Regarding Black Mayonnaise Habitats, posted October 2, 2014, The Blue Crab Forum™ and IMEP #27, posted September 30, 2014).
 
These soft sulfide rich deposits are not good areas in which to find fish.  Fishers head to structure and firm bottoms capable of supporting forage species.  Deep organic composts purge ammonia and at times sulfide both very toxic substances to fish and shellfish.  It is the beginning of sulfate acid soils.  Areas with greater circulation and those above the sulfide deadline contain much more "life."  Sulfide is the same substance that impacts coral reefs and recent research is investigating nursery coral gardens above the reef itself (NOAA Fisheries – Restoring Coral Reefs).  The bleaching of coral has been linked to a vibrio bacteria – Vibrio shiloi in high heat.  Interest is increasing in off bottom coral restoration – to lift coral above the bacterial sulfide deadline.  The increased productivity of vertical water column use has long been known and used in aquaculture.
 
Many times, reefs and vertical structures contain more habitat and greater biological richness or diversity.  The Cedar Island Marina proposal and studies pointed out this fact years before it was known who these areas held vibrio bacteria species.  This is a segment from a public brochure that was provided at public meetings to help explain the Cedar Island Marina Proposal – which was not approved.  The Biological Productivity section has this segment,
 
"Our consultants have prepared the most extensive productivity studies ever done in connection with a marina permit application.  The studies we have done show that the marine basin is a much more productive and diverse environment than the mudflats proposed to be dredged.  The marina basin is 4 ½ times as productive in terms of overall biomass and over 20 times as productive in terms of the density/diversity of organisms.  The flat is a two-dimensional environment.  The marine basin, like an artificial reef, is a three-dimensional environment with floating docks and pilings."
 
"You will always find a wide variety of fish feeding on the organisms which grow on the floats and pilings in the marina basin.  You will also commonly find birds feeding on the floats and pilings."
 
And under The Wildlife Habitat Enhancement section had this segment.
 
Aquaculture Trays Within Docks
 
"All main docks would be built containing submerged aquaculture trays within the docks.  The total tray system within all the docks in the proposed expansion could hold 200,000 mature oysters, or millions of seed oysters could be harvested by filling the trays with shell.  Our proposal states our commitment to lease this facility to Clinton's Shellfish Commission for $1 per year for 99 years.  We have also committed that we will pay for stocking the trays with either shell or mature oysters – whichever the Shellfish Commission decides.
 
In addition to the support of the Shellfish Commission, we have also received oral testimony and letters of support from the two largest oystermen who harvest oysters in Clinton Harbor.  These oystermen feel that our aquaculture proposal will enhance the productivity of the natural beds in the harbor.  They also believe that the boats are not the source of poor water quality in Clinton Harbor.  NOBODY has a bigger stake in the water quality of Clinton Harbor."
 
As Clinton Harbor became hot the impact of organic composts became evident to those who lived there for long periods.  Areas once firm and hard had become soft after the closure of the barrier spit breach called the Dardanelles.  This breach had allowed high level water to quickly exit at greater velocity and therefore able to carry more organics.  After it closed it (the ebb flow) slowed and organics began to build up.  In effect organics began to compost – the action of bacteria that consumed dead plant matter. 
 
In historical literature, this composting process by bacteria were called Saprophytes – organisms who lived (feeds) upon dead matter.  This includes fungal strains as well, and it is known that hot marine composts are filled with fungus – much the same as terrestrial composts.  In low oxygen conditions the composting process turns to sulfate bacteria – ones that waste sulfides and the "bad smell" historically termed the smell of rotten eggs.  When oxygen levels in sea water drops – organic matter rots with sulfate bacteria, it now forms sapropel an ooze with high levels of organic carbon.  This composting process is deadly to plants, as evidenced by the die off of eelgrass.  (If you compare to terrestrial composting many similarities arise).  The wasting disease of eelgrass for example was found to be from a marine slime mold Labyrinthula zosterae which thrives in hot composting conditions.
 
Other bacteria and pathogens thrive in hot oxygen poor seawater.  When Clinton Harbor was subjected to hot conditions, oysters and winter flounder were both subject to disease.
 
These huge algal blooms in Clinton harbor needed hot conditions and ammonia.  Composts in low oxygen conditions were known to produce ammonia over a century ago.  As the bacteria ammonia oxidizers died off from low oxygen ammonia levels now increased.  Algal strains that need ammonia now thrived such as Enteromorpha (now called Ulva species) and Cladophora – nick named "spaghetti weed."  These conditions alarmed those living on or near the harbor.  They were much different than the colder 1950s and 1960's.  During this time, it was easy to blame human impacts upon the harbor – when it was a climate condition of warming sea water.  Natures compost was building in a period of heat and little "natural" turning by powerful storms.  In time and with heavy organic loading these habitats are buried.  (Buried oyster shell reefs were described associated with dredging projects – see The Prehistoric Oyster Shell Heaps of the Damariscotta River by Harold W. Castner, 1950).
 
In 2009 (The USDA Coastal Zone Soil Survey Fiscal Year 2022), The University of New Hampshire Jackson Marine laboratory in a study of the Great Bay Estuary found a 4,000 years old oyster buried under about 1.4 meters (about 5 feet) beneath a subaqueous soil surface (likely sapropel T. Visel) (See Project Highlights – Coastal Zone Soil Survey fiscal year 2022, pg. 10).
 
Pipe penetration tests of Clinton Harbor yielded several locations of buried oyster shell in 1988.  If deep cores were taken, I suspect below this organic deposit north of river channel would have yielded similar results, the remains of long-ago oyster reefs are now under "black mayonnaise."
 
Although sapropel is a term that describes an organic/bacterial process in Europe, in the United States it is considered a geology term.  Until recently, sapropel was not mentioned in marine soil study which often excludes the natural sulfate reducing bacterial processes, vital to establishing biological richness or habitat quality.
 
While Clinton Harbor discussions centered around the impact of dredging the Hammonasset River and the mud flat high value (1980's) to the habitat richness, just the opposite was occurring.  The impact of high temperatures and bacterial sulfate metabolism (not geology) was creating a negative and at times toxic habitats.  The reaction of sulfide release and iron chemical changes was the source of the black iron sulfides.  When reposed to oxygen these sulfuric soils reacted to produce sulfuric acid and a low pH.  The reaction is what dissolves the stem of mushroom anchors and the lifeless back chain just above them.  Many boaters who haul their moorings might recall seeing life on the chain close to the surface but with the depth the chain turns black with little or no life.  This is the area below the "sulfide deadline" first described to me by Mr. John Hammond on Cape Cod in the early 1980's.   In 2013, Dr. Delvin Fanning and Dr. Martin Rabenhorst during a soil science field trip from a beach at Brian Point, in front of Hog Hole Creek Maryland – June 27, 2013.  A deep soil sample when exposed to hydrogen peroxide created heat and smoke as sulfuric acid was formed.   A video clip of the field trip is called "Violent Soil" (See EC #13, posted July 13, 2016, The Blue Crab Forum^TM).
 
In 2004, The USDA released a 96-page report titled "Understanding Soil Risks and Hazards" Gory B. Muckel editor, National Soil Survey Center Lincoln Nebraska pg. 7 Acid Sulfate Soils authored by Delvin Fanning and Gary B. Muckel contains this section, which details the rotten egg smell associated with "dead bottoms" and fish kills (my comments, T. Visel):
 
"Iron Sulfide Minerals (e.g. pyrite) commonly form in anaerobic soils and sediments in estuarine environments and tidal marshes by a process called sulfidization.  (Microbe metabolism of sulfate as an electron acceptor – old term bacterial sulfate metabolism both in organic composting in low oxygen, T. Visel).  During the active process hydrogen sulfide gas has evolved.  The rotten egg smell is positive identification in tidal environments.  In geologic deposits on uplands, however H₂S is no longer evolved.  Sulfidic materials are typically grey to black (Munsell Color Chromas of 1 or less) prior to oxidation.  Adding drops of IN HCL commonly causes an immediate color change and evolution of H₂S.  The pH is near neutral 7.0 sulfidic materials may be identified by incubation under moist aerobic conditions.  If the pH drops to about 3.5 within about 8 weeks, the material is considered to be sulfidic.  When placed in hydrogen peroxide, such materials under ago a violent oxidation reaction with the release of much heat, rapidly consuming the peroxide."
 
The first time I saw "Violent Soil" it provided the concept of a quick acid release of cysts and spores found in deep sapropel deposits.  After Hurricane Gloria, Clinton Harbor had MSX and winter flounder disease both lined to cysts and spores that become viable after "activation" now thought to be protected in high pH deposits that quickly turn acidic after a storm.  It also reinforced why when CT farmers used marine sapropel a century ago the New Haven Agriculture Experiment Station urged farmers to cut in lime or oyster shell.  New England was once a large user of marine sapropel for farm field fertilizer.
 
At one time, Connecticut farmers used marine sapropel as a soil nourishment and sent samples to the nation's first Agriculture Experiment Station in New Haven, CT for testing.  Samples often showed acidic conditions and came with directions for pH treatment.  This was used to offset acid conditions for "Harbor Mud" or north of Connecticut "mussel mud."  (See IMEP 112 Part 2: Dredging Projects Can Reveal Historic Oyster Beds 1900's, posted June 8, 2022, The Blue Crab Forum™).  The most valuable "mussel mud" was dredged by farmers in the maritimes as it contained buried river deposits of oyster shell.  (For the chemical explanation of the process, see "Sulfidization:  The Origin of Sulfides in our Soil and Sediments by M. C. Rabenhorst – University of Maryland – Environmental Science and Technology) (for an explanation of Mussel Mud on farm soils see Joshua MacFadayen Mussel Mud Digging in the Gulf of St. Lawrence 2013).  Much thanks to Jim Turenne, USDA- NRCS who in 2014 sent me the Delvin Fanning video clip titled "Violent Soil."  It helped me fill in the blanks about my experiences in Clinton Harbor and what I called "black mayonnaise."  An explanation of soil nourishment use and soil samples from the last century can be found in IMEP #112 Part I: Sapropel (Black Mayonnaise) Linked to Sulfide Toxic Deadlines for Oysters/Clams 1890 to 1990, posted June 8, 2022, The Blue Crab Forum™ Fishing, Eeling and Oystering thread.

 

In May of 2020, The Center for Coastal Studies Provincetown Massachusetts released a report titled "Black Mayonnaise" in Wellfleet Harbor.  "What Is It and Where Does It Come From" – (Mittermayr et al., Tech Report 20-CLO2) Wellfleet Harbor had in some areas accumulated 8 to 12 feet of organic ooze. Some soil samples yielded over 20% (Loss an ignition) organic matter content. P g 12 has this segment –
 
"A first glance at the measured sulfur isotope signatures suggest sedimentary sources including pyrite and sapropel.  Pyriteis generally considered to be the end product of sulfur all diageneses is in anoxic marine sediment (Hoets, 2004) and sapropel describes anaerobic sediment that are rich in organic matter."
 
In all likehood, a review of the much flat in Clinton Harbor would yield similar results.  A review of the Clinton Harbor studies may answer many fish and shellfish disease questions - my view, Tim Visel.
 
 
 

Appendix #1

 

Milford Aquaculture Seminar

Milford, Connecticut

Abstracts

February 27-March 1, 1999, Pg. 275

 

VIBRIO PARAHAEMOLYTICUS – A NEW PROBLEM FOR THE SHELLFISH INDUSTRY IN THE NORTHEAST.  David R. Relyea, Frank M. Flower and Sons Inc., P.O. Box 88, Oyster Bay, NY 11771.
 
During the time period between 8/10/98 and 8/29/98, eight cases of gastroenteritis occurred and were eventually reported to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC).  The illnesses occurred in Nassau and Suffolk counties in New York (6) and (2) cases were from New Jersey.  Stool samples from patients indicated that the illnesses were caused by a naturally occurring marine bacterium, Vibrio parahaemolyticus.  Tagging information seemed to indicate that the source of the bacteria was oysters and clams from area NS2 which includes Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor.  However, most patients had also eaten other seafoods (crabs, shrimp, etc.) that are known to be sources of Vibrio parahaemolyticus.  Health Department officials claimed that the only food common to all patients was shellfish from NS2.  New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) and USFDA notified NYSDEC that NS2 had to be closed and NS2 was closed to shellfishing on 9/10/98.
 
Due to confusion and insufficient Federal guidelines the area was not able to be reopened until 10/22/98.  During that time Frank M. Flower and Sons with 40 employees and about 50 individual baymen had no source of income.  This presentation gives the industry perspective of this perplexing problem.
 

Appendix #2

 

Brown Tide Cysts Linked To New York Bay Flushing

Sapropel Linked to Shellfish and Finfish Diseases and Parasites

 
It is becoming evident that organics provide habitats for many organisms that have temperature and energy triggers. These are increasing found to be harmful to seafood and US.  These diseases parasites are now associated in soft ammonia rich organic deposits.  The slower the currents or deeper the organic deposits the apparent higher number of diseases and parasites. Influence of nutrients and climate on the dynamics and toxicity of Alexandrium fundyense blooms in a New York estuary – Theresa Hattenrath, 2009, found that cysts concentrations (cysts cubic) centimeter in Northport Huntington Bay in 2008 were over 700 cysts (poorly flushed) while at the Bay Mouth only 0 to 10 cysts pg. 35 (where flushing rates are better), Cyst densities were much less.
 
And Hattenrath Lehman et al., in a recent survey in 2016 of Shinnecock Bay that cyst surveys of Old Fort and Pond had over 500 cysts in just one cubic centimeter (of C. polykakoides).
 
Old Fort Pond is an indented portion of Shinnecock Bay Long Island and could be described as a low energy high organic area that most likely contains an oxygen poor organic layer.  Researchers found that high heat and tidal circulation (flushing) has the ability to hold cysts – a potential seed stock for future blooms.  (Old Fort Pond South Hampton New York Dredging, January 5 minutes regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Free Holders and Commonalty of the Town of South Hampton, New York).
 
Poorly flushed areas may hold future seed banks for "toxic blooms."
 
 
 

Appendix #3

 

Sapropel Fertilizers

Sapropel Approved For Organic Soils – October 11, 2012

Environment

"Sapropel Fertilizers To Revolutionize Bulgarian Organic Farming

 
"Bulgarian researchers have developed a plan for the extraction and application of fertilizers from organic matter rich marine sediments (Sapropels) saying that the step could bring a significant change in domestic organic farming.  Sapropel based organic fertilizers are completive priced, stimulate plant growth and increase plant productivity by up to 40% improve soil structure and guarantee long term soil stability.  According to oceanologists the sapropel sediments accumulated at the sea floor are a product of the mass dying of plankton.  The project for the extraction and application of sapropel fertilizers was developed by researchers at the Institute of Oceanology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.  The qualities of sapropel based fertilizers were confirmed through testing at three specialized institutes."  Black Sea Sapropels Neutralization for Agriculture from The Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Natural Sciences Special Issue 1, 2014.
 
N. Nikolov and V. Tringovska – Researchers from Bulgaria – Article title –
 "Neutralization of Peat for Substrates Preparation, using Black Sea Organo – Mineral Sediments (Sapropels)" pg. 603-607
 
"The arm of present work was to explore the possibility of neutralization of the strong acidic peat from Lithuania, using deep water, Black Sea Organo – Mineral Sediments – Sapropels with a view to its more efficient application in various aspects of agriculture practice."
 
 

Appendix #4

 

Cedar Island Marina, Inc.

"THE FAMILY BOATING RESORT"

CLINTON, CONNECTICUT 06413 ^. PHONE (203) 669-86XX

 
                                                                   October 25, 1988
 
Timothy C. Visel, Extension Marine Agent
University of Connecticut
Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program
Avery Point Campus
Groton, Connecticut 06340
 
Dear Tim:
          We read in a recent New Haven Register article that you are planning to conduct video filming in Clinton Harbor in conjunction with the Madison Shellfish Commission.  We would like to offer our help free (ie; work boat and driver).  If we can be of any assistance, please let us know.
          We would also be interested in receiving a copy of that tape when made – or if you have a completed tape of some other harbor similar to Clinton, we would like to obtain that also.  If there is any charge for this, please advise.
          We also hear that you are planning on publishing a paper on mudflats and their potential for reclamation as oyster/shellfish grounds.  If so, we would appreciate a copy of that report also when it is complete.
          If there is anything we can do to be of assistance in any way toward the goal of more scientific information about Clinton Harbor, please don't hesitate to ask.
                                                                   Sincerely,
                                                                   CEDAR ISLAND MARINA, INC.
                                                                   Jeffrey Shapiro, President
 
JS/blk
 

Appendix #5

 

Who Harvests Sapropel for Fertilizer Today

 
Today, the largest harvesters of sapropel for farm fields is Europe.  It is a considered a sustainable – reviewable fertilizer.  A quick search yields dozens of commercial products for enhancing soil for agriculture.  The fastest growing market for sapropel is the middle east.
 
The largest Connecticut harvester of marine sapropel is not agriculture industries but port and harbor dredging companies.  This organic sapropel (not sand or silt) shares many of the chemical aspects of lake sapropels with two factors – higher sulfides (from sulfate reducing bacteria) and it contains salt.  We call it dredge material.  Connecticut farmers who once harvested marine sapropel would "let it sit" sometimes over the winter so that rains could wash the salt out.  These sapropels also could cause burst of sulfuric acid dramatically lowering pH.  Turn of the century Agriculture Experiments Station fact sheets recognized this condition urging farmers to add lime or cut in bivalve shell (See IMEP #102 Part 2: Black Mayonnaise A Natural Marine Compost, posted February 17, 2022, The Blue Crab Forum™).  A Guilford Connecticut account of using sapropel as soil nourishment is found in IMEP #68-A William T. Foote of Mulberry Point Guilford, narrative of Mr. Foote, January 16, 1883.  (Also, EC 22-A Bacterial Nitrogen and submerged grasses, March 29, 2022) is shown below:
 
"The mud is washed into a small bay between Sachems Head and Mulberry Point, and is flooded at every tide.  I have had fifteen years' experience with it on light – textured through dark colored loam with a clayish subsoil or under laid by rock.  It should be dug in winters the action of the frost pulverizes it until it is like ashes.  It is then left to dry a month or so.  If dug in summer it bakes hard.  I cart it to fields from twenty roads to a half mile distant.  It costs two cents a bushel dumped on the field ready to spread.  I use from 800 to 1000 bushels per acre, in drills and hills, broad cast on pasture or spread and plowed in when I used 2000 bushels of mud to the acre.  I raised potatoes at a rate of 400 bushels.  One cart load was accidently spread upon a space about 15 feet square and plowed in and a very large crop was resulting.  From one hill I took 13 potatoes (all these were) which weighed 5½ pounds."
 
It is thought that rain and freezing allowed the salt to be rinsed and caused acids to dissipate as well.  Mr. Foote conducted experiments (called Trials) which seems to indicate less acidity and greater bacterial use of the organic matter – his report is continued below obstruction from the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Station Board of Control report 1883 page 54 – (Foote, comments):
 
"With corn, I tried alternate rows of mud and yard manure, the latter from a yard of twenty cows were 1,100 bushels of grain had been fed in the winter.  Early in the season the mud rows did not show as well as the other, later they caught up and were equal in results to the other in size of stalk and amount of grain of English hay, I have 3 tons per acre where not hay, but mud has been used for years.  Top dressing pastures once in three years keep them in fine grass and apparently would do so forever, I don't find it quick enough for an early vegetable garden, without same more healthy manure, with beets, I have carried 900 to 1000 bushels per acre."