State Green-Lights Reopening of Shellfish Grounds

State officials have announced the reopening of the vast majority of the state's shellfishing grounds, just under two weeks after they were shut down as Hurricane Irene approached the region. Back bay grounds in Monmouth County and Delaware Bay remain closed, however.

State Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin signed an order Tuesday reopening shellfish beds in the ocean from Sandy Hook to Cape May Point and in the back bay from the Metedeconk River in Brick to Cape May Point.  The order returns the beds to the harvest classification status that was in effect prior to passage of the hurricane.

Officials at the DEP decided to close the shellfishing grounds with the expectation that runoff carried into local waterways by rains from Hurricane Irene would temporarily contaminate the harvest since shellfish such as clams, oysters and mussels filter the water in which they live.

On Sunday, personnel with the DEP's Bureau of Marine Water Monitoring collected tissue samples for testing, according to a news release. Several commercial clam boat operators helped out by taking DEP staff to many of the beds to collect the samples, which met federal health standards for safe consumption.

Over the past week, shellfish were scarce inside many local fish markets. The vast majority of local shellfishing grounds are in southern Ocean County – found in commercially-leased plots in Little Egg Harbor Bay and Great Bay – while the primary recreational clamming grounds in the area are found in Barnegat Bay behind Island Beach State Park. Clam beds in the Manasquan River have long been off-limits to both recreational and most commercial clammers.

The DEP collected samples from Raritan Bay, Sandy Hook Bay and the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers on Tuesday, and if bacteria test results come back within federal consumption limits, shellfishing in those areas may be open as early as Wednesday. Employees at the DEP hope to test Delaware Bay grounds on Wednesday if the weather cooperates.

The ban on shellfishing did not affect the harvest of crabs or lobsters, nor did it affect finfish. In all, the state oversees 425,830 acres of back bay beds, known as estuarine beds, and 295,857 acres of ocean beds.