Op-Ed: Support a 6-Month Shell Fishing Moratorium for Oyster Bay

By Bill Bleyer

With the future of the shellfish populations in Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor at risk, the Friends of the Bay (FOB) strongly supports the Town of Oyster Bay’s proposed six-month moratorium on taking any action on formerly leased areas of the harbors in order to conduct a study of current conditions.

On Sept. 30, the town’s 30-year lease of 1,830 acres of underwater land to Frank M. Flower and Sons expires.

Over those three decades, shellfish populations in the harbors have declined so drastically that the organizers of the annual Oyster Festival have been forced to import oysters in the past few years. These underwater lands have been continuously leased for 140 years with the method and scale of harvesting intensifying over time. 

Restoring the shellfish populations is not simple. To be successful, oysters and clams need not only a suitable bay bottom upon which to settle and survive, but they also need to be in proximity to other suitable areas where their larvae will settle and grow. You need a sufficient density of shellfish to establish a healthy population. Potential areas for restoration must be tested for sufficient dissolved oxygen, proper pH levels, tidal flow and other factors. And you need to find areas not prone to predators such as oyster drills and crabs.

The Town of Oyster Bay has responsibly taken actions to address the long-term health of the bays. It applied for and received a nearly half-million-dollar grant to have Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences develop a plan for restoring the shellfish populations. (This is the same team that successfully restored Shinnecock Bay’s population.)

The town also plans to construct a large-scale shellfish hatchery that could produce up to 100 million shellfish seed annually and has another large grant that includes constructing oyster reefs in the bay.

Friends of the Bay also recently completed a study with Adelphi University that helps determine where shellfish larvae have the best chance to settle and thrive. The town has also conducted shellfish population surveys, but not on the leased lands in question.

The moratorium will allow the necessary studies to be conducted while still allowing independent baymen to continue harvesting in the areas outside the lease area where they currently work.

For the relatively brief period of the moratorium, no harvesting by anyone should be allowed in the formerly leased area to maximize the effectiveness of the consultant’s study.

It is unlikely that there would be much shellfish to harvest on the leased lands in any case since Flowers shut its hatchery in 2019 and stopped seeding the area several years ago while vigorously continuing to harvest what was left.

After the Oyster Bay Town Board hearing on the proposed moratorium Aug.13, it is allowing the public to submit additional comments for 30 days.

We hope that others will contact town officials and urge them to proceed with this critical moratorium to ensure the long-term health of Oyster Bay and Cold Spring Harbor.

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Bill Bleyer is a local author, former writer for Newsday, and is the President of Friends of the Bay