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Long Island Sound

Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches 110 mi (180 km) from the East River in New York City, along the North Shore of Long Island, to Block Island Sound. A mix of freshwater from tributaries, and saltwater from the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island Sound is 21 mi (34 km) at its widest point and varies in depth from 65 to 230 feet (20 to 70 m).

- Old Saybrook

Connecticut River

- Stratford & Milford

Housatonic River

- Greenwich

Mianus River

- New Haven

Mill River (Quinnipiac River)

- Fairfield

Mill River (Fairfield)

- Norwalk

Norwalk River

- Bridgeport

Pequonnock River

- New Haven

Quinnipiac River

/Ash Creek - Bridgeport & Fairfield

Rooster River

- Stamford

Rippowam River

- Westport

Saugatuck River

- Groton & New London

Thames River (Connecticut)

- West Haven

West River (Connecticut)

Legal status[edit]

In 1985, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Long Island Sound is a juridical bay.[47] The case involved a jurisdictional dispute among New York State, Rhode Island, and the United States.


The classification of 'juridical bay' means that the states, and not the federal government, have jurisdiction over the Long Island Sound waters. This also means that the legal coastline of the United States incorporates the southern shore of Long Island, but not the alternative that would have been to consider the coastline to follow additionally the southern shores of Connecticut, and the eastern shores of Westchester County, the Bronx, and Manhattan.[47]

Lower New York Bay

Upper New York Bay

Geography of New York City

Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation

Longshore Sailing School

Sound (geography)

- EPA website

What Makes Long Island Sound So Special?

- non-profit preservation group

Soundkeeper

- non-profit preservation group

Long Island Sound Foundation

- official CSC website

Cross-Sound Cable

- New York Times series on Long Island Sound

Human Nature

- Wesleyan University Research on the Eutrophication of Long Island Sound

Ellen Thomas

- LIS eelgrass restoration and monitoring

SeagrassLI

- Information on Shell Oil Broadwater campaign

Fraudwater