Baykeeper calls on DEP to keep oyster project

A volunteer oyster gardener culls a group of young oysters before they are placed in the river. SEA BRIGHT — The NY/NJ Baykeeper is enlisting the public's help to stop the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) from canceling a program to return oysters to local waters.

"We're encouraging people to write in and explain the importance of the program in their opinion, and why we need these animals for water quality and improvement," said Meredith Comi, oyster program director for the Baykeeper.

Comi said the Baykeeper's office is trying to get the word out about the possible elimination of the program, which relies on volunteers in local towns like Sea Bright to tend to young oyster colonies until they are placed in the river.

She said the draft DEP ruling that would end the oyster gardening program came out of nowhere.

"[There's] no way we can do this reef restoration on our own. We rely on all these volunteers to grow thousands of oysters," she said.

Sea Bright Councilman Thomas Scriven spoke about the DEP's intention to cancel the program at the Nov. 17 council meeting.

He told the meeting that he has written directly to the DEP commissioner and asked the agency to reconsider the draft proposal.

He said the draft states that the DEP would not allow for the continuation of the oyster "gardening" project, which involves seeding the river with young oysters.

"They're afraid that people will eat the oysters and then end up destroying our oyster industry with bad publicity," he said.A

ccording to a press release issued by Scriven, the oyster project enlisted residents in placing floats holding 20,000 young oysters into the Shrewsbury River where they are expected to grow over the winter and at the same time purify the water, the release states.

In the spring, the oysters are to be moved to an oyster bed and the borough will receive replacement oysters to tend.

Scriven said he first heard about the DEP draft several weeks ago and was surprised by the possibility, especially because of the involved towns and schools that have embraced the idea.

He said losing the program would be a negative for Sea Bright, "because of the fact the whole town got behind the oyster program as a matter of pride and it's actually

helping clean the water in the Shrewsbury River, and it will have a positive effect

in the Navesink River by Oyster Point Hotel where the beds are, and it's just a good conservation project."

According to Scriven, the DEP feels there is a danger of people eating these oysters and getting sick from them.

"This in turn would generate unfavorable publicity on the shellfish industry, causing massive harm to the industry," the release states. "Everyone who lives around the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers is aware that they are not to eat the shellfish. More signage and media publicity will update citizens' knowledge of the problem. But a wholesale abandonment of a cost-effective and enthusiastically received program is not the method to use."

Bob Connell, chief of bureau marine water monitoring at the DEP, said the proposal is still in draft form and nothing has been officially decided.

"[The] policy is looking to encourage shellfish restoration in waters that are approved for shellfish harvesting," he said.

Connell said the DEP is very supportive of shellfish restoration.

"[But] when you start putting shellfish in known locations, or trays, or even reefs in polluted waters, there are unfortunately people who will, under the cover of darkness or [other circumstances], poach from those known locations," he said. "[This] could cause people to get sick. That's where our concern is. [We want to] develop a policy that fosters the restoration of shellfish but paramount above all is to protect public health."

He said the DEP would favor shellfish restoration in approved waters and encourage that.

"We would not encourage it in waters that are polluted or not approved," he said. "We'll look at some situations on a caseby case basis, [but for] other cases there is no question of the degree of pollution."

Connell said he hopes to have the draft complete by the end of December.

According to Scriven, letters of support for the oyster program can be sent to Commissioner, NJDEP P.O. Box 402, 402 East State St., Trenton, NJ 08625.