RESTOCKING STONINGTON'S RECREATIONAL

SHELLFISH BEDS

The Stonington Shellfish Commission makes every effort to keep the recreational shellfish beds stocked with enough clams for recreational harvesters. In previous years, we  purchased from a large Connecticut seafood wholesaler, which harvested shellfish from central and western Long Island Sound and trucked them to the Noank Aquaculture Co-Op. Stonington commercial oyster growers, Commission members, and community volunteers loaded the clams on boats and took them to the shellfish beds for distribution. In recent years, we have been unable to obtain large numbers of clams from wholesalers, so we made arrangement with local commercial shellfishermen to provide clams for transplanting. Unfortunately, this has resulted in a decline in the number of clams we receive. We will continue to seek additional sources for clams to transplant.

In 2018, the Shellfish Commission began stocking conditionally approved Area A  with oysters received from Stonington's commercial oyster growers as payment for their use of Town of Stonington shellfish grounds. In the fall of 2020, the Shellfish Commission transpanted thousands of market-ready oysters into Area A. Also in 2020, the Commission received a very generous donation of over 100,000 juvenile oysters from Fishers Island Oyster Farm. The oysters were placed on the bottom in recreational areas A and B. Most of these oysters will be of legal size by late spring of 2021. All restocking is carried out under permits from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture/Bureau of Aquaculture.