Having a Clear Impact: Chris Gobler Is The Southampton Press Western Edition Person of the Year

It started off when Christopher Gobler was in college volunteering for a local environmental nonprofit during his summer breaks.

“There was this really eye-opening, transformational moment for me that I’ll never forget,” he said.

Gobler was listening to a local clammer discuss the brown tide that was occurring in his local waters. The clammer told those listening that his grandfather was a clammer, his father was a clammer, he was a clammer — but his son? His son would never be a clammer because of what was attacking the bays and essentially killing off this generational career.

“It was happening and no one knew anything about it,” Gobler said. “Things aren’t always going to be the same, and they can change in the blink of an eye.”

Born on Long Island, Gobler — who is being honored this December as Person of the Year by the Western Edition of The Southampton Press — was always attracted to swimming in Long Island’s oceans, fishing on the East End, and sailing around the Great South Bay and Long Island Sound. This love of being outside eventually led him to follow a path in marine sciences.

For more than 20 years, Gobler has devoted his career, research and life to identifying the roles that excessive nitrogen loading has played in the degradation of local fisheries and water quality.

“I went away to college, and when I did that, it coincided with the collapse of the brown tides,” he said. “When I was finishing my biology degree and started thinking about what I wanted to do next, I knew it would be on Long Island and with something that I wanted to help out on.”

Gobler is a professor within Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences (SoMAS). He received his Ph.D. from the university in the 1990s and then began his academic career at Long Island University in 1999. He came back to Stony Brook in 2005, where he took on the role of director of academic programs at SoMAS on both the Stony Brook and Southampton campuses.

In 2014, he was appointed as the associate dean of research at SoMAS, and in 2015, he was named co-director of the school’s Center for Clean Water Technology.

In his role as co-director of the center, he sees the promise of discovering the solutions to Long Island’s nitrogen problems as well as the creation of an industry that can create jobs for Long Islanders.

His main research focus is investigating how anthropogenic activities, such as people’s contributions to climate change, eutrophication (wastewater) and the overharvesting of fisheries, alter the natural biogeochemical and/or ecological functioning of coastal ecosystems.

He also has made huge strides with research surrounding harmful algal blooms caused by multiple classes of phytoplankton in diverse ecosystems, as well as the effects of coastal ocean acidification on marine life.

“I went from asking questions to seeking solutions,” Gobler said.

Adrienne Esposito, the executive director of Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said that she has known Gobler since he was a college student many years ago. “His work and his science have really been the hallmark and cornerstone of coastal water restoration efforts here on Long Island,” Esposito said. “This work he has done will definitely leave a legacy.”

His research has continued for years — and, finally, in 2022 and 2023, there have been major and tangible results.

Clams at Shinnecock Bay

Last year, a 10-year-long study led by Gobler at SoMAS showed that Shinnecock Bay was successfully restored, with increased shellfish populations, a regrowth of seagrass and an end to brown tides.

This was successful because it finally switched the momentum, moving the bay back in the direction of its 20th century glory of shellfishing — and gave hope back to those whose livelihoods depended on clamming, just like the clammer who spoke to Gobler when he was just a post-grad.

Before Gobler’s research and initiative, Shinnecock Bay was an estuary that was deemed unfixable. With his guidance, he was able to partner with others to study the bay’s ecosystem and find out what could be done to bring life back to it.

Out of this brainstorming came the Shinnecock Bay Restoration Program, a creation of hard clam spawner sanctuaries and regions where adult hard clams could maximize their reproductive output, with their spawn circulating across the rest of the bay.

Gobler’s initial work in Shinnecock Bay confirmed that algae blooms were destroying shellfish species in the bay. His team has discovered and investigated the biology behind the decline in the bay’s water quality, shellfish populations and seagrass habitats. Applying what the team had learned, the Shinnecock Bay Restoration Program made a plan to offer real solutions to correct the problems.

With support from the Laurie Landeau Foundation, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Town of Southampton worked alongside Stony Brook University scientists and the Town of Southampton Baymen Association to identify regions that would be “no-take” zones, where clam harvesting was banned so that planted adult hard clams could repopulate the bay without being poached.

Over the course of five years, more than 3 million adult hard clams were planted in specific sanctuaries of the Shinnecock Bay, where they continued to grow in population and thrive — and help to clean the bay. This planning and execution is now being used in other parts of Long Island and the state thanks to its success.

“Not only is Chris an expert scientist, but he shares his science so that it can be used as a foundation of policy,” Esposito said. “So, with him, we have good policy based on good science, and we need more of that nowadays.”

Esposito added that after knowing Gobler for more than two decades, it’s exciting for her to see that his work has made a dramatic impact locally, nationally and even internationally with his “good science” and connections with elected officials and state agencies who are looking to make change.

“Knowing that those efforts brought back the clam population in the Shinnecock Bay, which then trickled down to the clammers, was rewarding,” Gobler said.

Beginning To Clean Up Lake Agawam 
And Better Water Quality All Around

Lake Agawam in Southampton Village has been impacted by detrimental algal blooms since 2003, so Gobler and his lab wanted to tackle cleaning this body of water, too.

This past spring, the DEC deployed three ultrasonic devices on floating solar-powered buoys onto the lake. The devices monitor water quality while emitting ultrasonic waves across the top layer of water. The sonic waves impact the buoyancy of algal cells, which respond by sinking into the water and eventually dying without light to support them.

This summer, as phase two of the plan, hydrogen peroxide administered at a moderate dose consistently helped to inhibit cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, and promoted the growth of eukaryotic algae, primarily green algae. The cyanobacteria are what could lead to harmful blooms.

“I often say that nobody moves to Long Island for the taxes or traffic,” Gobler joked. “You have to value those aquatic resources.”

As if these two major projects — plus dozens more — weren’t enough on his plate, Gobler and his team also have been consistently assessing water quality across Long Island’s surface waters.

While the latest news hasn’t been the most positive — an increase in algal blooms in other water bodies, increased nitrogen and more — Gobler said that “it’s exciting to see the progress,” nonetheless.

Aram Terchunian, a co-founder of the Moriches Bay Project and a coastal geologist with First Coastal Corporation in Westhampton Beach, said he has collaborated with Gobler professionally on many different projects, and, every time, he continues to be impressed by his work ethic.

“Chris conducts what we call ‘hard science,’” he said. “But he’s able to effectively communicate that science to a broad audience … students, politicians, regular people … He gives a unique presentation of complex facts in simple ways that allow people to understand them.”

Terchunian said that while Gobler has been making active change on Long Island’s waterways for a long time, he’s also an inspiring teacher. He noted Gobler’s work and research, starting as a student himself and now acting as a professor to other young scientists — his strong mentorship to the next generation of investigators. “He’s had dozens of grad students who learned how to do real science with him, and he mentored them as well,” he added.

In his personal experience, as part of those many different projects, Terchunian and his team had shared lab space with Gobler for the last two years, a small example of the teamwork it takes to move mountains — or stop algae from destroying an ecosystem.

“Chris is a real scientist, great communicator, a mentor and a great collaborator,” he said.

And while Gobler has literally implemented change for the better locally, statewide, nationally and around the globe, it’s all in a day’s work, the modest scientist said.

“Everybody has a footprint on the island,” he said. “On one hand, people may think, ‘I’m just one person.’ But actions have reactions — and we want to have a positive reaction.”