Is Help on the Way for Long Island Sound's Oyster Growers?

Following the back and forth the other day over the question of whether Connecticut's oyster growers are eligible for federal disaster aid for the damages they suffered because of Hurricane Irene, Brendan Smith of the Thimble Island Oyster Co. took to Twitter to explain what he knows and to propose an obvious solution, of not for now than for the future.

Here’s his thread. I added the words within the brackets to clarify his 140-character tweets:

[The issue is] bottom vs off-bottom growing. [I’ve been] told by farm bureau if the shellfish sit on the sea floor at any point, [it’s] not farming [according to] fed law

but if shellfish are grown in cages and/or suspended gear for their entire life cycle, then it's defined as farming.

[Regarding the unavailability of federal disaster aid, it’s] Fine if the answer is clear from the Feds, but i was told this was debated before and off-bottom was [defined] as "farming"

CT is another matter for historical reasons, deeming everyone farmers. Big q will be if farm bureau has it right or not...

{Representative Coutrney’s office,] call CT Farm Bureau. they say this been hashed out before, [they are] very knowledgeable about history of debate at USDA.

And if answer is still "no" from USDA - let's change the law! from every aspect I farm, [I] don't fish

Then in today's New London Day, there's a story about the Noank Oyster Cooperative, which has finally been allowed to sell oysters again. The Day reports that Connecticut's delegation in Washington is indeed trying to change the law to make shellfish growers eligible for disaster aid:

David Carey, head of the Aquaculture Division, said Thursday that some shellfish beds in Fairfield County and other parts of the state are still closed.

"Our goal is to get everything open as soon as we can," he said. "But we had a bunch of conditions we're not used to having."

His office, along with Connecticut SeaGrant, has been working on trying to obtain some assistance for the state's shellfishermen to help with their losses, he said.

On Thursday, an announcement came from the state's Senate delegation signaling that it may be easier to obtain help for the state's shellfishermen for future storm losses.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, both Democrats, introduced the Shellfish Equity Act. It would add shellfish to the list of crops eligible to be covered by disaster relief programs administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Under current rules, they are not eligible.

The state's shellfish industry supports an estimated 300 jobs and generates $30 million in sales annually, Blumenthal's office said in a news release.

"Our shellfish industry - severely damaged by Irene - deserves and needs the assistance that all other farmers receive, so they can recover and rebuild," Blumenthal said. "This measure would treat shellfish farmers on par with other agriculture producers, and ensure that they have the same eligibility for emergency aid."

Lieberman noted that the state's shellfishing industry has long played an important part in the state's economy.

"It is heartbreaking that their crops were hit so hard by Hurricane Irene," he said. "We will work with our colleagues to enact this legislation as soon as possible."

If approved, shellfishermen would become eligible for two USDA disaster relief programs, the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program and Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees & Farm-raised Fish program.

Oystering on the Air

Leonard Lopate interviewed a couple of experts on oystering, from the Chesapeake area and New York, on his show last week. I listened to it via podcast on my way to work this morning and found it interesting.

Oyster Gardening

I love this program, called the Rhode Island Oyster Gardening for Restoration and Enhancement. Here's how a Massachusetts paper called South Coast Today describes it:

The program, known as RI-OGRE ... works by enlisting community volunteers, such as homeowners with docks and boat owners with mooring balls, to provide a secure temporary home for floating cages of baby oysters. The oyster floats, 3 feet by 4 feet wide, contain mesh bags with seed oysters that, when sufficiently large, can be planted around the bay. Oyster gardening seeks to restore water quality and permit oyster populations to become self-sustaining. There is no intent to harvest what is grown.

And this...

"Oysters have tremendous filter feeding capacities and they improve the water quality by filtering between 50 and 60 gallons of water a day," said Steve Patterson, the shellfish field manager at Roger Williams University, which operates the Narragansett Bay gardening program. "Oysters are a keystone species in estuaries in that they also provide habitat for creatures like silversides, mummichog and baby crabs that make up the beginning of the estuary food webs," he said.

Apparently it's been going on in New York:

The NY/NJ Baykeeper gardening program has been operating since 2000.

There, gardened oysters are planted on reef restoration sites in order to provide spawning adult oysters according to Christine M. Lynn, oyster program assistant with the Baykeeper program. But concerns about a potential health threat if gardened oysters are sold commercially have also become an issue in New Jersey, she said. "I think the oyster gardening programs in South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina are far ahead of us in terms of acceptance from regulators, but this is mostly because they still have relatively pristine waters to work in," Lynn said.

Since its inception around Narragansett Bay, oyster gardening has benefitted the environment and should be encouraged said Dale Leavitt, associate professor of marine biology at Roger Williams University.

"It's certainly obvious that the services the oysters provide make it worth putting them out there," he said. "As far as the disease issues that caused the demise of oysters in the first place, we're cleaning a lot of that stuff up now so there's a good chance for success in re-establishing these ecosystems they way they used to be. And there's a lot of value to that."

From a regulatory standpoint, the main obstacle remains the potential human health risk, Leavitt said.

The RV John H. Volk

John Volk, who for years was the head of the aquaculture division of the Connecticut Department of Agriculture, was a terrific source for the oystering sections of This Fine Piece of Water, and read, commented on and improved the book's last chapter.

I hadn't realized that he died in 2007, a relatively young man. But I'm happy to see, here, that the state has decided to name its shellfish research vessel the John H. Volk. The man knew his shellfish, and he returned phone calls -- two things that were invaluable to me.

The Cost of Commercial Shellfishing Goes Up

If your local school district wants to increase your property taxes, it comes up with a new budget and asks residents to vote on it, up or down. If your town wants to increase your property taxes, it too makes a new budget and then holds a public hearing and votes on it, in public.

The state of Connecticut though can apparently increase the per-acre "tax" it charges oystermen by simply making a decision at the department level. In January, the Department of Agriculture's division of aquaculture, which regulates the shellfishing industry in Long Island Sound, raised the per-acre "tax" on shellfish beds from $30 to $200.

Shellfishermen are outraged. They say such a steep increase will put them out of business. The state says it needs the money to run the division that oversees oystering.

I hate to be so wishy-washy but this is clearly one of those situations where both sides are right. An increase of $170 per acre, essentially overnight, is a huge burden. My impression is that for the most part oystermen work hard and make an honest living but are hardly affluent. As Soundkeeper and State Legislator Terry Backer points out in this story, in the Stamford Advocate, any increase in costs to the oystermen will result in an increase in costs to the consumer, and since most of the consumers are restaurants, they will happily go out-of-state to buy cheaper oysters and clams.

But the Advocate also points out that the increase is the first since 1968. Oystermen and clammers paid $30 an acre for 40 years, so in some ways they've had the benefit of an extraordinarily friendly regulatory system. Clearly the head of the aquaculture division thinks the fees should have been raised more gradually over the years but that they weren't because of the influence of one big oyster company. Now he's trying to make things more equitable.

The other thing to keep in mind is that the $200 per acre isn't really a tax. The oystermen don't own the land they harvest oysters from -- the state does. They oyster beds are a public resource that the oystermen have exclusive rights to. Even if you think, as I do, that oystering is exactly the kind of compatible industry that Long Island Sound should have more of, it's still a privilege that should be paid for.

On top of all that, the state also is imposing a fee of $1 per bushel on shellfishermen, to help pay for the costs of inspecting the waters, to make sure typhoid-infused oysters aren't making it onto our tables.

Oystermen are pissed. On the other hand, businesses everywhere are making less money and cutting back. It may just be tough luck.

The photo, by the way, is of oyster sloops working Bridgeport Natural Bed, I think, although they might be working off the Rowaytown-Norwalk area -- I've never been sure.)

An Oyster Boat Called a Sandbagger

Down on South Padre Island, Sam Wells saw my post about the Bonackers and, after reading the Times story, wrote an account of a type of Long Island Sound oyster boat called a Sandbagger that played an interesting role in sailboat history.

It's on his blog, here. He said in an e-mail to me: "I don’t know how convincing my history is, but I had fun writing it!"

Oysters and Clams, and Where to Find Them on the Sound

It's my impression that there's more interest in shellfishing on Long Island Sound than there has been in a while. Norwalk has always been an oystering center, and the Connecticut Department of Agriculture's aquaculture bureau has worked for decades to help shellfishermen and to improve shellfish beds. But I see more and more stories in the local papers that indicate a growing interest in shellfishing, which might indicate a growing confidence that shellfishing is a proper and safe activity in the Sound.

The folks in Madison, for example, are trying to expand the town's clam beds to make recreational shellfishing easier, which is a great idea, here. And a man who hails from a line of shellfishermen in Greenwich just got a license to harvest clams from the area near the Westchester County border, here.

Alissa Dragan at the Connecticut aquaculture bureau sent me some statistics about shellfish beds in Connecticut's part of the Sound. In 1985 there were 310,000 acres of shellfish beds approved form unconditional harvesting. The number fell to 243,000 in 1990, to 135,000 last year, and to 134,000 this year. Over the same period, the number of conditionally approved beds went from 6,000 acres to 136,000 acres (conditionally approved means the beds are open or closed for harvesting depending on the conditions and the quality of the water, which changes mainly with the weather -- heavy rains mean more bacteria). Here's how Alissa explained the change in the number of acres:

...keep in mind that these changes in acreage, from 1985 to 1990 and 1990 to 2006, do not necessarily correspond to degraded water quality, or conversely to improved water quality. In addition to water quality, there are several other factors that have impacted the classification of Connecticut’s shellfishing grounds over the years. Standards by which areas were classified became more stringent. From 1988 to 1990, shellfishing areas in several towns were downgraded to comply with new growing area requirements. In order to meet the FDA requirements in all 26 shoreline towns, areas had to be prioritized based upon shellfish harvest activity due to a shortage of manpower. Over the years sampling became more frequent, and sampling locations increased, resulting in the revision of growing area classifications in towns for which there previously were no data. The Bureau also conducted shoreline surveys to identify actual and potential pollution sources further contributing to redefining areas. It is more accurate to say the classification changes shown in this historic data are the result of improved knowledge about the areas and the factors influencing them, and a changing regulatory climate.

Rowayton Historical Society Wants To Let More People See Its Colllection

One of my stops when I was searching for photographs for my book was the Rowayton Historical Society’s collection at the Seeley-Dibble-Pinkney House, on the Five Mile River. I met an older man and woman there on a Saturday morning in spring and together we looked through old photos stored in boxes and hanging on the wall. When I found four pictures of oyster boats that I thought I could use, they pried them from their frames, put them In an envelope, and handed them to me, extracting a promise that I bring them back in a week after I had gotten them copied. I did, of course, and the pictures are in the oystering chapter of my book.

The Rowayton Historical Society is making an effort now to get that stuff and lots of other photos, diaries and artifacts out of storage and on display. Here are some excerpts from a Stamford Advocate story:

The hope is to put the vestiges from Rowayton's history on display downstairs in the house, with themed exhibits of photographs and other items. Upstairs, the storage area will be more spread out, and there will be research rooms for people to look at the items more closely.

The paper documents will complement the other tools the historical society has on display in a barn on the property, and oystering paraphernalia at the Barclay Boathouse just behind it.

Before the museum opens, the historical society plans to renovate parts of the Pinkney House, including opening up a walls to create more free-flowing spaces and removing the modern kitchen upstairs to create more storage….

The house is a prominent piece of Rowayton history. Built by Alfred Seeley, a package ship operator, in 1820, it remained in the same family until it was purchased by the Sixth Taxing District. Alphonso Dibble, who married a Seeley daughter and lived at the house, operated a meat and grocery store at what is now Rowayton Market.

Historical society members see the museum as a central part of the proposed Five Mile River Landing National Historic District.