For Release: Monday, May 24, 2004

DEC Restricts Shellfishing in Four Towns in Suffolk County

Including areas in Great South Bay, Little Peconic Bay, Cutchogue Harbor and Southold Bay

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Erin M. Crotty today announced that DEC has adopted regulations to reclassify approximately 3,300 acres of shellfish beds as uncertified (closed) to the harvest of within or adjacent to four towns in Suffolk County. The regulations, which reclassify shellfish lands within or adjacent to the Towns of Babylon, Islip, Southold and Southampton, went into effect on May 13.

"DEC's shellfish sanitation program has determined through routine water quality monitoring that particular areas in Suffolk County do not meet the bacteriological standards for certified shellfish harvest areas," Commissioner Crotty said. "The reclassification of these areas will protect the health of shellfish consumers in New York and around the country."

In the Town of Babylon, approximately 150 acres in Great South Bay in the vicinity of Oak Island will be closed to shellfish harvesting throughout the year.
In the Town of Islip, approximately 2,900 acres in northern Great South Bay will be closed year-round, and 75 acres in Clam Pond, near Saltaire on Fire Island, will be closed May 15 through September 30, annually.
In the Town of Southold, a total of 175 acres in Cutchogue Harbor, Southold Bay, Haywater Cove, East Creek, Mud Creek and Pettys Pond will be closed throughout the year and a section of Goose Creek will be closed from April 15 through December 31.
Adjacent to the Town of Southampton, approximately 13 acres in Little Peconic Bay, outside the mouth of Fresh Pond, will be closed throughout the year.

DEC's Bureau of Marine Resources monitors water quality throughout the year to protect public health. Water samples are collected from nearly one million acres of shellfish harvesting areas in the Marine District of New York and examined in DEC's microbiology laboratory in East Setauket. Areas that meet stringent state and National Shellfish Sanitation Program criteria are designated as certified (open) for the harvest of shellfish. Areas that do not meet those criteria are designated as uncertified (closed) for the harvest of shellfish. New York State's Environmental Conservation Law prohibits the harvest of shellfish from uncertified areas.

Shellfish harvesters and the general public may comment on these regulations through the DEC's website. DEC has mailed notices with detailed descriptions of the new closure lines to all individuals holding New York State shellfish diggers' permits who reside in the affected towns. Anyone seeking more information about these new regulations should call DEC's Bureau of Marine Resources at (631) 444-0475. Additional information about New York's shellfish sanitation program is also available through at DEC's website.

04-55