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Long Island Sound
The tidal estuary between Long Island and Connecticut
Long Island Sound is a tidal estuary of the Atlantic that lies between the north shore of Long Island and the coast of Connecticut, roughly 110 miles long and up to 20 miles wide. Fed by the Connecticut, Housatonic, and Thames rivers and open to the ocean at both ends, it is a busy waterway threading through one of the most densely populated regions in the country.
Bordered by some of the wealthiest suburbs in America and within reach of New York City, the sound supports boating, fishing, and shellfishing alongside heavy ferry and barge traffic. Its watershed reaches far north into New England, and like other urban estuaries it has battled low-oxygen "dead zones" and pollution, the focus of a long-running interstate restoration program.