Great South Bay Brown Tide

In the early 90's I remember the Brown Tide was becoming deeper and more sustained year after year. It was discovered that over harvesting of clams once incredibly abundant in the Great South Bay had contributed to the increase in the Brown Tide. You see clams were able to filter out the excess phytoplankton, a single-celled marine plant, that was now over abundant and causing a very devastating brown tide, which in turn effected the Shellfish populations in the bay. Thus making it nearly impossible for the shellfish to thrive or survive each year. In 2005 there was a repopulation program developed to plant millions of clams back into the bay in hopes they would control the ever increasing brown tide. It remains to be seen if these efforts can in fact return the balance in the bay.