6 Photos
Georgica Cut circa 1930
Georgica Cut, November 1, 2021
Georgica Cut, circa 1930
Georgica Cut, circa 1930
Georgica Cut, circa 1930
Georgica Cut, circa 1930
The East Hampton Town Trustees dug open the cut, or gut, to Georgica Pond on Monday, November 1, just as they have been doing for centuries.
The image on the left, captured from a video discovered and shared recently by LTV and the Friends of Georgica Pond, shows how it was done a century ago, painstakingly, using horse-drawn plows and shovels — compared to the quick work today’s heavy machinery makes of it.
Traditionally, the Trustees would open the cut — historically known colloquially as a “seapoose” — twice a year to let the pond drain to give access to shellfish beds and boost salinity as ocean water flows into the pond on high tides.
In more recent years, the opening of the cut and the flush of saltwater has been discovered to be a restorative elixir when blooms of toxic algae, fed by nutrient laden lawn fertilizers and septic waste, explode in the pond’s waters.
From the barely 5-foot-wide channel that is dug, the push of water from inside the pond can widen the cut to more than 100 feet, and can flow for weeks before the natural movement of sand by the ocean waves stanches it.
The opening of the cut attracts striped bass, bluefish and weakfish to the outflow, which carries with it crabs and small fishes that had been trapped in the pond, and in turn is a popular destination for surfcasters in the spring and fall.
Staff Writer on Nov 2, 2021