Long Island south shore and Fire Island
Over the side at a bay marina, or gone in the Long Island surf
Long Beach, Point Lookout, Gilgo, Robert Moses, Fire Island and Smith Point
A phone, a set of keys or a watch that goes over the side at a bay marina lands in one place and stays there. The ocean side is the opposite, because every tide moves the sand over whatever went into it. A lost ring on the bay and a lost ring in the Atlantic surf are two different jobs.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch or phone on the Long Island south shore with a metal detectorist who can search there.
We are the go-between who sets the search up. We find a detectorist who can reach your beach or your dock, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Note the slip, the street end or the field number
Before you leave, fix the spot. Note the nearest field number, street end, lifeguard stand or jetty, or the slip and the dock post if it went in at a marina. Take one photo looking inland and one out to the water, and drop a pin on your phone. Ask at the lifeguard stand or the beach office before you go, because jewelry is often handed in there.
Then send us the pin, the photos, the item and the time. Say whether it went down on dry sand, in the surf, on the bay side or off a dock, and roughly how deep the water was, because those are planned differently. Jones Beach has its own page.
Places we cover on the Long Island south shore
- Long Beach NY (city beach and boardwalk)
- Point Lookout (Town Park)
- Lido Beach (Town Park)
- Lido West
- Gilgo Beach
- Gilgo State Park
- Cedar Beach and Overlook Beach
- Babylon NY
- Tanner Park (Copiague) and Venetian Shores (Lindenhurst)
- Captree State Park
- Robert Moses State Park (Fields 2 to 5)
- Fire Island Lighthouse
- Sailors Haven and Watch Hill, Fire Island
- Smith Point County Park (Shirley)
- Mastic Beach NY
- Cupsogue Beach County Park (Westhampton)
- Shinnecock East County Park (Southampton)
From the Long Beach boardwalk out to Smith Point
Long Beach NY
The City of Long Beach has a white sand beach and a 2.1 mile boardwalk (about 3.4 km), with lifeguards on the sand through the summer. Rock jetties break the beach into sections, and the nearest jetty, with the street end behind it, is the marker that puts a searcher on the right sand.
Point Lookout and Lido Beach
Three ocean beaches sit side by side here. The Town Park at Point Lookout has 1,800 feet (about 550 metres) on the ocean, across the inlet from Jones Beach, and Lido Beach Town Park has 1,554 feet (about 475 metres) of beachfront. Lido West is the third. All three are guarded in season, so a stand number narrows a wide beach quickly.
Gilgo Beach and Cedar Beach
Three ocean beaches run along Ocean Parkway in the Town of Babylon, at Gilgo, Cedar Beach and Overlook Beach. Gilgo has the Gilgo Beach Marina behind it, where phones and keys go over the side between a boat and the dock. Cedar Beach has volleyball courts and a playground, where a ring can come off in the middle of a game or a phone slip out of a pocket.
Robert Moses State Park
At the western end of Fire Island, Robert Moses State Park has a shoreline of nearly five miles (about 8 km) and four lifeguarded swimming fields, Field 2 to Field 5, and like Captree State Park next door it has a Babylon postal address. From Field 5 a boardwalk runs the length of the car park, and a nature walk of three quarters of a mile leads to the Fire Island Lighthouse. People swim and boogie board here, often with rings, Oura rings and watches still on.
Sailors Haven and Watch Hill, Fire Island
Two lifeguarded ocean beaches out on Fire Island, reached by ferry or private boat. Sailors Haven is home to the Sunken Forest, and Watch Hill has a 175 slip marina. Losses here split between the sand, the walk up from the ferry and the water beside a boat.
Smith Point County Park and Mastic Beach
Smith Point County Park is Suffolk County's largest park, at the eastern end of Fire Island. William Floyd Parkway crosses Narrow Bay on the Smith Point Bridge from Shirley, and Mastic Beach is nearby. The park has lifeguards and the TWA Flight 800 memorial, which is the one fixed marker almost everybody here can name.
From your message to someone standing on that sand
The same person throughout
The same person takes your details and stays with your case until the search is done.
Your pin and photos reach the searcher
Whoever searches gets your marked spot, your photos and the time of the loss before setting out, so the first hour is not spent guessing.
Weak cases are said out loud
A ring that went into the ocean surf days ago, with nothing fixed to line it up against, is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Ocean side and bay side
A barrier island beach in the Atlantic surf and a sheltered dock on the bay behave nothing alike, and the searcher is told which one they are walking into.
You get the figure first
What a search would come to is put to you first, and nothing is arranged until you say so.
What the sand, the tide and the bay do here
Sand that keeps moving
Fire Island beaches are mainly white quartz sand. Waves move it up and down the beach with each tide and along the shore with longshore currents, and even a storm far offshore can pull sand out to a bar.
Tides at the inlets and in the bay
NOAA tide datums show how much the range varies here. At Point Lookout, Jones Inlet (station 8516402) the mean range is 4.14 feet (about 1.26 metres). At Moriches Inlet (station 8513398) it is 2.83 feet (about 0.86 metres). Inside Fire Island Inlet at the Fire Island Coast Guard Station (station 8515186) it is only 1.89 feet (about 0.58 metres). An ocean beach search is best timed around low tide.
Surf and rip currents
A daily rip current risk is published for Southern Nassau, which takes in Long Beach and Lido Beach, and for Southwestern and Southeastern Suffolk, which take in Robert Moses, Gilgo State Park, Smith Point and Cupsogue. Any wading search follows that forecast.
Water temperature
NOAA averages for the Long Island buoy 30 nautical miles south of Islip give water of about 73°F (23°C) in August, about 64°F (18°C) in June and about 41°F (5°C) in February and March.
Water beside a dock
The bay side is the calm half of this coast. Between a boat and the dock the water is shallow and still, and what drops in stays close to where it went under, which is why the slip and the post matter more than anything else you can tell us.
Questions about the Long Island south shore
My phone went over the side at Gilgo Beach Marina. Can anyone get it back?
Often, yes. Phones and keys both read on a detector, so the question is the water rather than the item. Beside a dock on the bay side the water is shallow and still, which is the easiest kind of water to work in, and it is a job for a diver or for a detectorist who can wade there safely. Note the slip and the post nearest the drop, the time, and take one photo looking down from where you stood.
I lost my wedding band in the surf at Robert Moses. Is it worth a search?
Often it is worth asking. Say which field you parked at, Field 2 through Field 5, and roughly how far out you were standing, because that turns nearly five miles of shoreline into one stretch of sand. The surf moves sand with every tide, so the sooner a search happens the better the chance.
Can you help with a ring lost at Gilgo Beach?
Yes, and the first thing to settle is which Gilgo you were on. Gilgo Beach is the Town of Babylon ocean beach off Ocean Parkway, open to the public in summer, with the marina behind it. Next door, Gilgo State Park is undeveloped and reached only by four wheel drive. Tell us which of the two, and whether it went down on dry sand, in the surf or on the dock.
My Oura ring came off in the water at Long Beach NY. What should I do?
An Oura ring and a watch both have metal in them, so a detector reads them. Note the nearest street end or boardwalk entrance and tell the lifeguards, in case someone hands it in. Then tell us whether it came off on the sand or out past the shore break, because those are two different searches, and give us the jetty you were nearest.
I lost an earring at Point Lookout or Lido Beach. Can something that small be found?
It can, on dry sand and over a small area. A stud gives a weak signal, so the pin matters more than it does for a band. The Town Park at Point Lookout has 1,800 feet of ocean beach and Lido Beach Town Park has 1,554 feet, so the stand you sat near is what narrows it down. Ask at the beach office before you go home, because small jewelry is often handed in.
We live in Mastic Beach and lost a ring at Smith Point. Where does a search start?
On the open ocean beach, out from the parking area at the end of the Smith Point Bridge. That is a wide beach, so the TWA Flight 800 memorial, a lifeguard stand or the boardwalk gives a searcher a corner to work out from. Tell us how far along you walked and whether the ring went down on dry sand or in the water.
A bracelet went missing on a day trip to Sailors Haven. Is that searchable?
The sand and the walk up from the ferry are, and they are where most things come off. Tell us where you put your bags down, where you went into the water and which way you walked to the Sunken Forest. If it slipped off on the boat or out in the surf, say so, because that is a different answer.
Long Island south shore and Fire Island
The slip number, or the street end
What went missing, where you stood, the hour, and one photo.
On the bay the water holds what falls into it, and a week makes little difference. On the ocean side the next tide is already working. Either way the pin and the photo are what make a search possible at all, so send those on WhatsApp and the rest can follow.