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During the 1980s and early 1990s I lived in Fairfield, CT and kept a boat at Milford, CT. On weekends, I'd often cross Long Island Sound to Montauk, then head offshore from there for a day of fishing. Plum Island is about halfway between Milford and Montauk and the sand shoal off the southern end of the island provides some excellent fishing for those who don't mind fighting the rip current that runs hard there.

I'd heard the stories about foot and mouth research done there, but there was a persistent rumor that the island was also used as part of our ICBM missile shield system - and that the silos were dug very deeply into the rocky island. Later, there were rumors that the airliner that went down over Long Island was hit by a missile launched from Plum Island. I found the missile rumor so interesting that I once began circling the island at a very close range with my binoculars trained on shore to see what might be revealed. There was an area that I found interesting, so I moved to beach the bow of the boat for a better and more stable look. When I again trained the glasses on the area, I saw folks with automatic weapons approaching.... not exactly a friendly-looking greeting party. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

I reversed off the area and continued on to Montauk - never to have the desire to try that again. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/zombie.gif" alt="" />

Whatever goes on there, it's an evil place. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />


And what do the nautical charts and signs say about landing there? It is off limits for very good reasons that have nothing to do with national defense. Plumb Island is only a USDA Research Facility for foreign animal diseases. Only the USDA uses it now. At one time it use to be part of the coastal defenses, but that was back in WW I/II times. Much of that stuff is still there if they didn't need the space for a lab building. I've seen and walked through some of the old coastal defense structures on a tour for lab personnel family members. Yes the old pill boxes and gun placements are still there. The guys with the guns were coming to greet you because you were looking like you were going to land. That is a big no no. You land, they quarantine you. Us farmers really don't want FMD getting to the US mainland. An outbreak of FMD on the mainland could cost the country many many billions of dollars. If you don't believe that, google on "FMD England economic losses". An outbreak traced to illegally imported foods caused over half the cattle population to be destroyed. It is highly contagious to cloven hoofed animals and can spread for miles on the wind. Animals that are three plus miles down wind of an infected animal can catch it. They shoot all deer that swim to the island or that they see swimming in the waters around the island.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/1515327.stm

Last edited by Bogo; 04/21/08 09:55 AM.
-- Bryan