BEACON RECORD The Village
Mount Sinai • Miller Place • Sound Beach • rocky Point • ShorehaM • Wading river • leiSure country May 21, 2015
volume 30, no. 43
$1.00
Residents vote YES Mount Sinai
Miller Place
ALL PROPOSED BUDGETS PASS See your district’s results and school board election coverage on pages A3–5
Rocky Point
A day of reflection on Memorial Day also, Memorial Day parades on the North Shore; local actor lands lead in ‘Oliver!’ at Theatre Three
Page B1
PJ library looks to expand Seeks community input
Page a8
Town seeks to curb horseshoe crab harvesting By erika karP
With its horseshoe crab population dwindling, Town of Brookhaven officials are calling on the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to ban harvesting within 500 feet of town property. At the Mount Sinai Harbor Marine Stewardship Center at Cedar Beach on Tuesday, Supervisor Ed Romaine (R) announced
the Brookhaven Town Board is poised to approve a message in support of the ban at Thursday night’s board meeting. Horseshoe crabs are harvested for bait and medicinal purposes, as their blue blood, which is worth an estimated $15,000 a quart, is used in the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries to detect bacterial contamination in drugs and medical supplies, due to its
Photos by erika Karp
top, an approximately 3- to 4-year-old horseshoe crab; above, Supervisor ed romaine and Brookhaven’s chief environmental analyst anthony graves.
special properties. While there is already a harvesting ban in place for Mount Sinai Harbor, Romaine is seek-
ing to expand the restriction across the North and South shores so the crabs have a safe CRaBS continued on page a10