Frank M. Flower & Sons, in feud with Oyster Bay, wins right to survey in harbors

A state Supreme Court judge issued an order earlier this month granting the shellfishing company Frank M. Flower & Sons the right to survey the underwater lands it exclusively harvested for decades in Oyster Bay and Cold Spring harbors.

The decision will allow Frank M. Flower & Sons to independently study the inventory of clams and oysters remaining on the bay bottom. The company is suing the Town of Oyster Bay for financial damages for the shellfish it planted before its exclusive 30-year lease covering 1,400 underwater acres ended in September.

State Supreme Court Judge Gregg Roth, in a 10-page decision dated May 13, pushed back against the town’s attempt to force Frank M. Flower & Sons to rely on a February town-commissioned survey to determine the value of the remaining shellfish.

“It cannot be reasonably argued that the Town’s expert is a neutral party,” Roth wrote, adding that it’s clear the study conducted by Hauppauge-based Cashin Associates is “arguing on behalf of the town and against” Frank M. Flower & Sons.

However, the judge denied Frank M. Flower & Sons’ proposal to use mechanical dredging to conduct the survey, instead requiring the company to use similar techniques to the town study. The town has raised concerns that the company’s past mechanical dredging damaged the underwater land.

“While the court has permitted the company to conduct their own survey, they have also restricted the company from using controversial dredge equipment,” Oyster Bay spokesman Brian Nevin said in a statement.

James Cammarata, an attorney representing Frank M. Flower & Sons, said the survey requires state approval and that there is not yet a clear timeline of when it will take place.

The town sued the company in 2023 for allegedly violating its long-term lease when it stopped seeding the bay in 2019. At the time, the company said it did not know whether the town would renew its shellfishing lease, prompting it to cease operations of its commercial hatchery.

Frank M. Flower & Sons denied violating the lease and said it made annual payments beginning in 2021 instead of providing 1 million seedlings annually for planting, Newsday reported.

After a judge shot down Oyster Bay’s attempt to cut Frank M. Flower & Sons’ lease short last year, the company countersued the town in June seeking financial damages and a lease renewal.

Following the end of the lease on Sept. 30, Oyster Bay instituted a shellfishing moratorium on the formerly leased grounds that is still in effect. Town officials said they are using the moratorium to develop a long-term plan for growing shellfish in the harbors.

The town’s survey found the harvest of shellfish in recent years without additional planting “has severely depleted the clam population to extremely low levels.” 

Oyster Bay has been weighing plans to build and operate a new shellfish hatchery that each year can produce 100 million clams and oyster seeds.

The two sides are next due in court July 17.

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ