Oyster Program to Expand
East Hampton Town’s community oyster garden program, under which individuals and families can grow up to 1,000 oysters and keep half of them, will expand further this year, if the town trustees agree to a request made on Monday.
John (Barley) Dunne, director of the town’s shellfish hatchery, which seeds town waterways with juvenile oysters, clams, and scallops each year, told the trustees that the program, launched in Three Mile Harbor in 2016, has been a resounding success, with “tons of people on a waiting list” to participate. In its second year, the program, intended to encourage residents to be stewards of the environment while enhancing shellfish stocks, was expanded from 15 to 40 plots in Three Mile Harbor, and a second site at Hog Creek was added. It expanded again last year, with 11 growers in Accabonac Harbor.
This year Mr. Dunne said, “we’re hoping to add Napeague to the network, if you will,” while growing the Accabonac Harbor site to around 20 plots.
A community preservation fund purchase of a parcel at the end of Crassen Boulevard, where a house was subsequently removed, would provide access to Napeague Harbor, Mr. Dunne said. “The only downfall is it’s also very shallow,” he said of the water there. “So this one, I think, would be a little farther offshore, and would probably be a wading spot,” whereas gardeners can access oyster cages from the shore at the other sites. But as most activity will happen in warmer months, it’s “not too torturous,” he said. And, “it allows people to get out there, get in the water, get muddy.”
Known as the East Hampton Shellfish Education Enhancement Directive, or EHSEED, the program is modeled on Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Southold Projects in Aquaculture Training (SPAT) on the North Fork. Under New York State guidelines, participants are limited to 1,000 oysters and can harvest half that number.
Residents of the town are given priority to take part. The cost, $250 per individual or family and $150 each year thereafter, includes oysters, gear, and instruction. Last year, residents who own a dock also became eligible for the program, with one waterfront resident at Accabonac Harbor and two at Hog Creek taking part, for a first-year fee of $350.
The program encourages residents to be stewards of the environment while enhancing shellfish stocks. A single adult oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, while the gear provides habitat for crabs, nursery fish, and other marine life. Seeding waterways with the “filter-feeding, habitat-producing, nitrogen-sequestering” bivalve mollusks, Mr. Dunne said, both benefits the marine environment and enriches its stewards. “We’re increasing outreach and local knowledge about the existence of our hatchery,” he said.
This year’s program will launch with a lecture and workshop at the hatchery, on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk, on March 2, Mr. Dunne told the trustees. Participants will learn about brood stock conditioning, shellfish biology, and algae culture. More educational events will follow on March 30 and April 27, the latter at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton.
A nursery tour is scheduled for May 25, and seed will be distributed on June 22. A tour of the gardening sites is scheduled on July 27, and Kim Teatrault of Cornell Cooperative Extension is to give a talk on the history of New York shellfish in September. The program will also include a cocktail party at Bay Kitchen Bar in Springs on Memorial Day weekend, and another event on Labor Day weekend, Mr. Dunne said.
The trustees, who have jurisdiction over many of the town’s waterways and bottomlands, seemed agreeable to adding Napeague Harbor to the program, and indicated that they could move toward authorizing the expansion at their next meeting, on Feb. 11.