News
DEP To Pull Plug On Sea Bright Oyster Gardening?
By Ryan Fennell
SEA BRIGHT - The Oyster Restoration Project undertaken by Councilman Thomas Scriven and the residents of Sea Bright is being threatened by a draft proposal by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Last year, the Borough of Sea Bright along with the NY/NJ Baykeeper Organization launched a town-wide Oyster Restoration Project.
They placed 20,000 oysters into the Shrewsbury River earlier this fall. The oysters will grow over the winter while purifying the water. In the spring the oysters will be moved to an oyster bed in Red Bank, and Sea Bright will receive replacement oysters to continue the project.
The NJ DEP feels that there is a possible danger from people eating these oysters and getting sick, possibly resulting in a devastating blow to the Shell Fish Industry.
"A wholesale abandonment of a cost effective and enthusiastically received program is not the method to use," Scriven said in a press release. "We implore the director of the DEP to withdraw this ill-conceived draft proposal and have the DEP work with other respected agencies like the NY/NJ Baykeeper Association to continue this program."
Bob Connell, bureau chief of Marine Water Monitoring, said that a draft policy is "under consideration and there has been no decision to end anything." According to Connell, the DEP supports oyster restoration and gardening, and is involved in programs elsewhere in the state in approved waters.
"The problem is the fear of shellfish in polluted waters being harvested for consumption unintentionally or worse, removed by poachers and sold for consumption," Connell said.
Connell acknowledged the benefits of the oyster program in Sea Bright as being very well-intentioned and educational but that the risks of those oysters, and others in the state, being poached or consumed is great enough to consider the draft proposal.
Scriven plans to send a letter to the DEP Commissioner Lisa Jackson asking her and the department to reconsider.
Scriven believes that further public awareness and adequate signage will help prevent the polluted oysters from misuse by the public.
"To deprive concerned citizens from acting to establish oyster beds and to help clean the water of the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers is a mighty miscalculation, and I ask you to review this policy of your Departments and act to have it rescinded," Scriven said in a copy of the letter obtained by the TRT™.
