Middle school students from Stafford Springs, CT explore marine life in the Sound at Bluff Point Coastal Reserve in Groton in June. For many of the students, who live near the Massachusetts border, it was their first visit to the Sound. On their trip, they met Judy Preston of CT Sea Grant, the state’s outreach coordinator for the Long Island Sound Study, to learn about the organisms that make the Sound their home. Earlier in the spring, Preston conducted a webinar for the students to learn how land use practices in watersheds such as their Thames River watershed can lead to polluted runoff that impacts Long Island Sound.