LI fishermen pushing state for lower quota for surf clams

With New York State’s surf-clam harvest at historic lows, local fishermen are urging state lawmakers to impose new catch limits for the large ocean clams to help restore a species critics say has been overfished by out-of-state commercial boats.

Even with surf clams more scarce now than they've been in decades, the fishermen say the new limits are needed now to help protect the resource as it rebuilds, and to protect it from future overfishing. 

Surf clams, which are harvested chiefly within three miles from Long Island’s South Shore, are larger cousins of the hard clams found in the bays around Long Island. They are processed and canned for clam chowder or clam strips and for bait.

Last year, surf-clam landings fell to 13,988 bushels, a 94% decline from their recent a high of 241,429 in 2012, according to the state.

Fishermen say unless something is done to control harvest limits, which allow big commercial boats to take upward of 900 bushels of the clams per day, the remaining surf clams could be wiped out.

One conglomerate, Maryland-based Seawatch International, which controls 11 of the state’s 17 surf-clam licenses, in 2017 unsuccessfully sued New York State to restore rules that allowed them to take their combined quota of clams using just a handful of boats. Seawatch also objected to rules requiring permit holders to be New York residents and limiting the size of harvest boats to 70 feet or less. The case was dismissed a year ago.

Calls to Seawatch and its Bellport attorney, Lee Snead, were not returned.

One Long Island fisherman said he’s pushing for the new rules to prevent further decimation of the fishery.

“It’s the rare case where we fishermen are asking to be better regulated for the benefit of the stock,” said Mike Ferrigno, owner of M & M Fisheries and L & L Wholesale Bait in Islip, one of the last local holders of a surf-clam permit.

Ferrigno wants New York State to use the Massachusetts model to limit the daily take to 200 bushels. The move, he said, would limit the viability of the fishery for the big boats, which are “so efficient that they don’t allow anything to reset or regrow.”

The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which manages the fishery, acknowledged the state’s surf-clam fishery “has been declining,” with only one vessel, owned by Ferrigno, currently dredging for surf clams, exclusively for bait. But the agency did not say whether it supported further catch limits.

DEC said it’s working with Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences to “conduct an updated surf-clam population survey … to assess future management requirements.”

Assemb. Steve Englebright (D-Setauket), who chairs the Assembly’s environmental conservation committee, agreed there might be a need for more regulation. He recently met with fishermen and is receptive to the call for further restrictions, he said.

“I think the numbers speak for the need,” Englebright said of last year’s low harvest numbers. “And I think there is a need to reexamine this entire issue because the overharvesting has hurt everybody involved with the industry and the environment itself.”

Another longtime fisherman who has also been advocating for rule changes for surf clams, said it’s long overdue.

“It’s been overfished, there’s no question about it,” said Rob Hart, whose family operated a shellfish business in West Sayville for decades before he sold his surf-clam boats in recent years. “I’d like to see the rules change so it can’t happen again.”

Hart, who owns shipyard Shellfish Marine in West Sayville, agreed with Ferrigno that New York could create a more sustainable surf-clam fishery by reducing the daily catch limit to those such as in Massachusetts, while reducing the size of the gear used to dredge surf clams. 
"When you have huge heavy gear and it goes through a populated area, you kill as much as you catch," he said. "Smaller gear would help." 
"The payback could be millions in income for local fishermen and in taxes for the state. Even if you had 10 boats working, it's a lot of income, it's millions of dollars that goes back to our economy," he said. "The way the fishery is now a lot of that money leaves the state."
 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.