The national estuary program is an expanding program.

He said the estuary program had not taken a position on what role mariculture should have in the estuary.

Climate Ready Estuaries is an EPA program intended to help the national estuary programs and coastal managers plan for climate change.

Volunteer with one of your local estuary programs and you will be trained and, if necessary, given equipment to monitor your estuary.

The impetus for the national estuary program, Ms. Beede said, came out of studies of Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes that started in the 1970's.

The Peconic was accepted into the federal estuary program in 1992.

Since 1985, annual harvests of the Peconic Bay scallop have plummeted from annual highs of around 500,000 pounds to as little as 50 pounds, the estuary program said.

Officials said that compared with the Long Island Sound and the other 27 bodies of water in the national estuary program, the Peconic was in relatively good condition.

Mr. Lowrie said that the reserve, in a national estuary program like Long Island Sound, could use its proceeds from the bonds for a plan to protect the bays.

The Clean Water Act passed by Congress last month assured the Sound Study more than $1 million annually for the next few years by establishing a national estuary program.