Baymen oppose shellfishing pause in Oyster Bay waters
Oyster Bay Harbor, seen here on Tuesday. Credit: Newsday/Howard Schnapp
Baymen on Tuesday opposed the Town of Oyster Bay's bid to pause shellfishing on 1,400 acres of underwater land in parts of Oyster Bay and Cold Spring harbors.
A six-month shellfishing moratorium would kick in as early as Oct. 1, after the expiration of a 30-year lease that gave Frank M. Flower & Sons exclusive rights to harvest the bay.
A moratorium would allow town officials to assess the health of the bay bottom, they say, as well as the area's shellfish population once the company's lease ends on Sept. 30.
Commercial fishermen say they should be able to harvest the underwater land, where they've been denied access for decades, while the study takes place.
An hourlong hearing Tuesday morning grew contentious as local baymen opposed the town's proposal.
"A moratorium on the land is the wrong thing to do," Bill Painter, president of the North Shore Oyster Bay Baymen’s Association, said at the hearing. It’s time for the land "to come back" to the public, he said. "The baymen would not be in anyone’s way" during the study period, he added.
The moratorium would allow the town to collect "data on a portion of the bay to put together a bay management plan," Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino said at the hearing.
The study could last from three to six months, town officials said.
The town has let baymen fish in other areas while similar studies have taken place, the fishermen pointed out.
Robert Wemyss, secretary of the North Oyster Bay Baymen's Association, said the moratorium is misguided.
"You’re punishing the wrong people here," he said.
Christine Suter, director of the nonprofit Friends of the Bay, supported the moratorium. She called it a "critical step to determining how [the bay] should be parceled out and managed moving forward."
The Town of Oyster Bay and Frank M. Flower & Sons have been embroiled in litigation.
Al Amato, an attorney for Frank M. Flower & Sons, asked town officials to let the company study the underwater land after the lease ends.
The company wants to determine the value of the remaining shellfish as part of the lawsuit, Amato said.
The town sued Frank M. Flower & Sons in June 2023, alleging the company had violated its lease. The company denied the allegations.
The company was required to provide a million seedlings to the town annually, Oyster Bay officials have said. In 2021, Frank M. Flower & Sons said, it began making payments to the town instead of providing seedlings when the company didn't know whether its lease was being renewed. In May, a state Supreme Court judge denied the town’s bid to terminate the lease early. The company filed a counterclaim seeking financial damages and a new lease.
The town is expected to vote on the moratorium next month.
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