NEWS

Delaware shellfish farmers frustrated by permit, lease delays

Molly Murray

The News Journal

Steven Friend invested in the cages and lines he needs to grow oysters in Delaware's Inland Bays, but he and others who want to raise shellfish don't have the most important tools they need to fuel their venture: permits, state leases and seed stock.

More than three years after the state Legislature made Delaware the last state in the East to adopt a commercial aquaculture law, Friend and other clam and oyster farmers are still waiting.

"If I had known this three-and-a-half years ago, I wouldn't have done it," Friend said. A lifelong Sussex Countian, Friend said he wants to do his part to improve water quality in the Inland Bays, and he believes shellfish farming can make a big difference.

"When I heard about our waterways being that polluted, it hurt me," he said.

Oysters and clams are filter feeders, siphoning water and pulling off algae and nutrients. In the past, oysters were harvested in the Rehoboth and Indian River bays, and commercial fishermen held bottom leases from which they harvested the shellfish. There is no commercial oyster harvest in the inland bays now. Two diseases, MSX and Dermo, killed the remnant populations in the 1960s and 1970s, and state environmental officials revoked the old bottom leases.

University of Delaware shellfish aquaculturist John Ewart holds a cluster of oysters he raised in his lab in Lewes. Ewart started with seed stock he aquired through the Haskins Shellfish Lab in New Jersey.

Clams are still commercially harvested in Rehoboth and Indian River bays, but there is no hard clam population in Little Assawoman Bay. It will be the only area where commercial clam aquaculture will be permitted.

A paddleboarder heads out into the Little Assawoman Bay. Delaware environmental officials plan to allow clam aquaculture in the shallow waterway because there is no native clam population.

While State Environmental Secretary David Small has approved a state system to approve leases of land for shellfish farming in Rehoboth, Indian River and Little Assawoman bays, the state is still awaiting approval from the Army Corps of Engineers for an expedited federal permit review. State environmental officials initially sought this permit to expedite the process for people who wanted to be commercial growers.

But the process was delayed amid concerns that some of the proposed state lease areas were in high-traffic areas where there might be conflicts with existing uses. The state has since removed many of the controversial lease areas.

STORY: Delaware shellfish farming to be limited

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A total of 343 acres will be available for lease. The leasable area has been reduced from the 442 acres that were originally approved in state regulations adopted in 2014. The law permitting shellfish aquaculture in the bays was adopted in 2013.

Zina Hense, who manages the state shellfish aquaculture program, said state officials expect the federal permits to be complete in the next few months.

Once the federal permitting process is complete, Hense said state officials will begin taking applications from people who want to raise shellfish in the inland bays.

Last week, Small, announced a process that he said he expects will shorten review and approval of shellfish leases in the inland bays.

Developing the state regulations took a year, but once they were adopted some residents and property owners along the eastern shore of Indian RIver and Little Assawoman bays complained they were unaware that shellfish aquaculture operations were about to start in their waterfront back yards. They complained about navigation and access issues and their concerns that the commercial harvest and tending operations would be unsightly and noisy.

Stanley Jester, of Chincoteague, harvests oysters by hand at low tide in his oyster bed in the shallows of Chincoteague Bay.

“Approval of this process addresses concerns we have heard from waterfront property owners around the Inland Bays and still allows certainty for small business interests who wish to pursue growing oysters and clams in the Inland Bays,” Small said. “DNREC had an obligation to develop a process for implementing the law allowing aquaculture, and this approach does so in an equitable manner. This is a major step in moving the program forward.”

But even with these steps, it still could be an uphill struggle for oyster and clam farmers in the state.

Delaware has restrictions on the importation of seed stock from out-of-state. The regulations are designed to make sure disease contaminated oysters or seed stock for planting aren't brought into the state. No one in Delaware raises seed clams or oysters on a commercial scale.

John Ewart, the shellfish aquaculture specialist at the University of Delaware, shows young oysters that he is growing in his lab at Lewes. Ewart said finding suitable seed stock will be a challenge for people who want to raise clams and oysters in Delaware.

Hense said state environmental officials are in the process of writing new guidelines that will cover the import of oyster spat and clam seed stock.

In addition, she said, the state will need to hold a lottery to handle the distribution of available shellfish plots.

Friend said there are so many open questions about how the process will work. The state will require both a bond and insurance from people who enter the business and lease holders will be required to hire an underwater surveyor or pay to have the state survey the leased areas. Plots that have too high a density of hard clams will be off limits even if they are already in the designated lease areas.

"It's just a lot of money" to invest, Friend said. "And there's no guarantee" that the shellfish will grow.

Contact Molly Murray at (302) 463-3334 or mmurray@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @MollyMurraytnj.