Legislation May Permit Return of Oyster Beds to NJ Waters

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Companion Legislation in both chambers in Trenton would again allow for man-made oyster beds in area waters despite concerns from the state’s environmental agency.
The bills, both out of their respective committees in the Assembly and Senate and awaiting an opportunity for a vote, would permit NY/NJ Baykeeper and other environmental groups to once again place oysters and develop reef-like structures in areas like Raritan Bay and elsewhere. These groups say that this environment creates a natural means for cleaning the water.
The state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), however, continues to express concerns and reservations about some unintended consequences within the project. Those issues were what led the DEP in 2010 to order Baykeeper to destroy the beds and oysters that the group had developed in Raritan Bay, in Keyport Harbor, and had to do the same in 2008 to beds established in the Navesink River off of Red Bank.
The DEP’s decision banned research, restoration and education projects using oysters in waters that had reached certain levels of contaminations or were classified as “restricted” or “prohibited” for shellfish harvesting, the department said at the time.
“Our position has been and remains now that we have to be mindful of the potential impacts to people’s health and the seafood industry,” Robert Considine, a DEP spokesman said in an email response.
But for Baykeeper, “We were left with nothing,” said Meredith Comi, the organization’s oyster restoration program director.
The oysters and their beds allow for a natural filtration system for the water ways, and one that grows as the oysters multiply, environmentalist have documented, environmental groups have maintained. “Eventually, it’ll improve water quality,” said Al Modjeski, habitat restoration program director for the American Littoral Society, an environmental group. Along with creating a home for the oysters, it allows for habitats for crabs and a variety of fish species and may even have a positive effect for preventing damage from such devastating storms as Sandy, by establishing future, natural water breaks, Modjeski said. “It would promote community resiliency,” he believes.
The Baykeeper’s beds, had the group been able to continue the project, would have been able to study any beneficial effects, Comi said.
The DEP at the time said it was worried about illegal oyster harvesting in contaminated and prohibited waters and that fish life could make its way into restaurants and the impact it could have on public health and on the state’s $1 billion a year shellfish industry. Without sufficient manpower to police the bed areas, as required by the Federal Drug Administration, the only alternative was to destroy the beds and oysters, according to the DEP.
Baykeeper has been able to continue its work on a limited basis in waters at U.S. Naval Weapons Station Earle, in Middletown’s Leonardo section, Comi said, and hopefully will continue elsewhere should this legislation become law.
“While the DEP has its concerns,” said Assemblyman Carmelo G. Garcia (D-33), one of the bill’s primary sponsors, “clearly restoration is a necessity within our waters.”
There are safeguards in the bill requiring these oyster beds having protective casings – which are done elsewhere – that would hopefully allay DEP fears, noted Garcia and Declan O’Scanlon (R-13), a Monmouth County Assembly member and co-sponsor.
O’Scanlon has thrown his support behind the bill because “I think using natural ways to improve the quality of our ecosystem is a good idea and I’m hoping we can make that happen in such a way as to guarantee our food chain is not negatively affected.”
Garcia said he is “very hopeful and confident given the nature of what we’re trying to accomplish here,” and the seemingly bipartisan support that the bills will get a vote and be passed by the two chambers and hopefully win over the DEP.
“We do recognize that this type of research can potentially have a positive impact to the health of contaminated waterways,” DEP’s Considine offered, “and we are looking into adopting new regulations that would allow pilot research projects to occur with a commitment to security measures that would be complicit with FDA regulations.”
“I think there is general support,” O’Scanlon suspected. However, no vote has been yet scheduled.
– By John Burton