A non-profit organization called Robots in Service of the Environment (RSE) has developed a robot that will hopefully be the solution to what many experts have described as the worst man-made ecological disaster ever witnessed. The problem is a massive invasion by the lionfish, a voracious predator that threatens to destroy coral reef ecosystems, native fish stock and fisheries in the Caribbean Sea, Western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.

On June 15, swimmer and clean water advocate Christopher Swain became the first person in history to swim the entire 133-mile length of Long Island Sound and the East River. The purpose of Swain’s swim, from Montauk, NY to New York City, was to call for a permanent end to the dumping of raw sewage into coastal waterways.

Laurie Vetere, a local attorney, Charlie Lefkowitz, a former town councilman, along with Mike Kaufman and I, founded the Setauket Harbor Task Force with a mission of increasing public awareness of the harbor’s plight, improving its water quality, and protecting its critical marine habitat.

And this summer, boaters on Long Island Sound had many opportunities to see breaching whales up close, sometimes within 300 feet.