Wildlife

Rivers, Lakes, and Estuaries                Water of Long Island Sound               Warming and Rising Waters               Swimming                Drinking Water 

Clamming and Oystering

 

 

The area of the Sound designated as prohibited or restricted for harvesting shellfish was slightly greater in 2022 than in 2021.

 

The acreage of shellfish growing areas that are designated as “restricted”, which includes “prohibited”, “restricted relay”, and “conditionally restricted relay” designations increased by two acres in 2022 from the previous year.³⁸ The area of restricted/prohibited shellfish growing areas is determined by bacteria contamination, which is an indicator of poor water quality, possibly because of sewage contamination and/or polluted runoff. Changes in the classification of shellfish growing area are related to improvement or decline in water quality, based upon the results of water quality monitoring and/or updated sanitary survey findings. The Connecticut Department of Agriculture's (DoAg) Bureau of Aquaculture (BoA) monitors water quality and classifies shellfish growing areas according to their potential for yielding healthful, uncontaminated shellfish.

Water quality assessment criteria for shellfishing as a designated use only applies to inner-shore, and mid-shore estuarine waters where shellfish growth is viable, which is approximately 50 percent of Connecticut’s estuarine waters. Only about 20 percent of the estuarine waters identified as assessed in the 2022 Integrated Water Quality Report can fully support shellfish harvesting from Class SA waters.** Meanwhile, the percent of estuarine waters that can fully support shellfish harvesting from Class SB waters remains unchanged from the 2020 report at approximately 62 percent.³⁹

 

<sub>Goal: The goal for marine shellfishing, adopted in the 2015 edition of the Long Island Sound Study's Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan, is to “upgrade 5 percent of the acreage restricted or closed for shellfishing in 2014 by 2035”. The “restricted or closed” acreage in 2014 totaled 167,264 acres, which included areas designated by DoAg as “prohibited”, “restricted relay”, and “conditionally restricted relay”. Therefore, the goal is a reduction of restricted or closed acreage to 158,901 acres by 2035, shown on the chart as a gold horizontal line. There is a total of approximately 390,000 acres of shellfish beds managed by the DoAg, BoA. 

Technical Note: *The vertical axis in the chart above has been shortened, beginning at 100,000 acres rather than the customary zero. **SA waters allow shellfish harvesting for direct human consumption where authorized, whereas SB waters allow shellfish harvesting with depuration or relay where authorized. Depuration is the action or process of freeing something of impurities. In the case of shellfish, this usually means moving the shellfish to areas with better water quality.</sub>

 

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³⁸  _{DoAg, Bureau of Aquaculture, personal communication with M. Zuber, January 23, 2023; portal.ct.gov/DOAG/Aquaculture1/Aquaculture/Aquaculture-Home-Page.}
³⁹  _{DEEP, 2022 Integrated Water Quality Report to Congress, p. 38; portal.ct.gov/-/media/DEEP/water/water_quality_management/305b/2022/IWQR-Final-2022.pdf.}