6 JULY 2019 • FOGHORN FOGHORNFOCUS: ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES F red Hall knows how important Long Island Sound is for outdoor activities such as birding, fishing and hunting. As Vice President and General Manager of the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Steamboat Company, Port Jefferson, NY, he spends a lot of time on or near the water. He’s also an enthusi- astic outdoorsman and conservation- ist himself — a hunter, fisherman and chairman for his local chapter of Ducks Unlimited, helping to protect wetlands for waterfowl. “If the Sound is not in great shape, these outdoor recreational opportuni- ties don’t exist,” says Hall. That’s why it was an easy choice for Hall to join forces with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in an effort to monitor bird life in the Sound. Situated on the roof of the P.T. Barnum ferry is a new antenna that picks up information transmitted from birds wearing special tracking devices called nanotags. The information is then down- loaded to a computer, where scientists collect and analyze the data. The antenna are hardly noticeable among all the other gadgets on the boat, notes Hall. “It was relatively easy to accomplish and everyone was wonderful to work with,” he says of the effort. By supporting this research project, the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson Steamboat Company is helping to fill a critical data gap for biologists working to protect wildlife in Long Island Sound. Science Takes Flight While there are many land-based tracking antennas located up and down the East Coast through the MOTUS network — which stretches from South America to Canada — this is one of the first successful attempts to collect data from a moving ship. Knowing more about what happens when birds such as roseate tern, piping plover and red knot are out on the open water will help scientists better protect them. “Our hope is that this will provide new insights about a Wildlife Tracking Onboard a Long Island Ferry By Darci Palmquist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Terns flying off the coast of Great Gull Island, in Long Island Sound, New York. Credit: Sarah Nystrom/USFWS (BELOW)  A tagged roseate tern. Credit: P. Paton