The non-profit NY/NJ Baykeeper submitted a schedule today to remove its experimental oyster beds from contaminated waters in the Raritan Bay area, although the proposed work will not meet a July 30 deadline set by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The group told the DEP in a letter that it will comply with an order issued Friday to...
Deborah Mans, Executive Director, NY/NJ Baykeeper, Robert Spiegel, Executive Director, Edison Wetlands Association, Attorney Janice Gorin of Terris, Pravlik & Millian, and Bill Schultz, Raritan Baykeeper, speak to the media at the old National Lead site in Sayreville, in this 2009 file photo.The non-profit NY/NJ Baykeeper submitted a schedule today to remove its experimental oyster beds from contaminated waters in the Raritan Bay area, although the proposed work will not meet a July 30 deadline set by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The group told the DEP in a letter that it will comply with an order issued Friday to remove its oyster beds in the Keyport Harbor and Navesink River, but that tidal schedules will prevent the work from being safely done until the first two weeks of August.
"We’ve received their plan and we’re considering it. We’re open, as long as they are showing good faith and making a real effort to remove them," said DEP spokesman Lawrence Ragonese.
In June, the DEP ordered the removal of an estimated four dozen experimental and educational mollusk beds being operated in contaminated coastal waters, contending it no longer has the manpower to patrol them. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration contends the DEP is failing to adequately patrol contaminated waters to prevent poachers from illegally harvesting both naturally or artificially raised mollusks in those waters.
Hanging in the balance is the state’s commercial mollusk industry — a $790 million annual fishing business that pulls clams, oysters and mussels from coastal waters deemed clean by the DEP. The FDA said it may have to close the industry if the DEP fails to improve its patrols this summer and if the state Department of Health and Senior Services fails to improve inspections it is required to conduct at shellfish processing plants.
The Baykeeper initially fought the DEP’s oyster bed removal edict, contending they posed no public health threat because its oysters were too small for market and were secured in submerged, concrete and steel cages. Last week, the DEP inspected the beds and presented photographs showing 20 percent or more of the Baykeeper oysters were at market size and that the beds were in easily-reached shallow waters.
The beds, according to the DEP, also were held together with heavy plastic covers, not steel and concrete, and DEP staff were able to easily cut free large groups of oysters.