Greenwich Tests the Waters On Its Shellfish Beds a Lot, and Wants People to Know About It
Greenwich is trying to reassure its residents that its shellfish beds are safe by publicizing just how much effort goes into testing the waters. As recently as 1991 it sold 542 permits to town residents. But the number fell to barely 200, where it has stayed since 2001, according to the Greenwich Time, which quotes Shellfish Commission Chairman Roger Bowgen:
"There was a die-off and it took a long time to bring everything back," Bowgen said of efforts to restore oysters and other mollusks to town waters after disease and other problems about a decade ago led to a steep decrease in recreational shellfishermen.
"Typically people, when eating something from the Sound, say it's dirty, but we're trying to show that testing goes on all the time. The water is a lot cleaner than people think and it's really very safe to take clams and eat them. We take special care to make sure this happens."
"There was a die-off and it took a long time to bring everything back," Bowgen said of efforts to restore oysters and other mollusks to town waters after disease and other problems about a decade ago led to a steep decrease in recreational shellfishermen.
"Typically people, when eating something from the Sound, say it's dirty, but we're trying to show that testing goes on all the time. The water is a lot cleaner than people think and it's really very safe to take clams and eat them. We take special care to make sure this happens."
Labels: shellfish
posted by Tom Andersen at 1:23 PM
1 Comments:
Steamers, cherrystones, guahogs, and oysters. I hope the project works because as you've said before, those critters can clean an incredible amount of water if they can flourish. Larger guahogs (hope my spelling is OK) and oysters should be left for reproduction and really cleaning the water. Cherrystones, a small quahog, is my favorite in a white wine and butter steamer pot or mixed in a marinara sauce, southern Italian style.
Those beds should be hand-picked or up-weller floating docks should be used because we want the weed and sea grass to grow back too. There is lots of misoonformation such as these are "aquaculture farms" like salmon that make tons of poop. That is far from the truth, since they (the shellfish) filter and clean it up. It is also another reason why the experts watch the waters like a hawk, since if enterro bacteria counts zoom, they close and shellfish picking.
Please keep us informed.
sam
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