Oyster Bay harbor cleanup day Saturday

Oyster Bay’s annual harbor cleanup day — a collaboration between the town, environmental nonprofit Friends of the Bay and the North Oyster Bay Baymen’s Association — will be Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., organizers said.

The event has been a tradition since 1993 and is made possible by a volunteer force, Supervisor John Venditto said.

“Employees and volunteers have gathered together, rolled up their sleeves (and, in some cases, pants legs) and conducted a thorough cleanup of beaches and shoreline areas along Oyster Bay harbor,” Venditto said in a statement.

Volunteers clean by land and water, walking the shoreline to pick up debris and also using their boats to collect bay-borne trash, he said.

Volunteers are asked to meet at the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park launching ramps.

Friends of the Bay executive director Wednesday said about 400 volunteers come out each year. Those on boats reach more remote beaches and often haul in abandoned boats, she said.

When you put work into something, when you clean something, you become its steward,” Aitken said.

Saturday’s event comes as the town and the baymen’s group work toward settling a $750 million lawsuit filed by the baymen alleging unethical harvesting practices by the Frank M. Flower & Sons shellfishing firm and by the town, which leases land to Flower.

Venditto, the baymen and Flower have said recently they hope to work out their differences, with bayman Joe Finke last month citing the cleanup as an opportunity to cooperate.

“I hope to see you at the harbor cleanup with that shirt,” Finke told Venditto at a town board meeting, referring to a North Oyster Bay Baymen’s Association T-shirt gifted to the supervisor, “and I hope that we remain friends.”

Above: The Oyster Bay Marine Center at 5 Bay Ave. on Oyster Bay harbor. (March 26, 2012)