Oyster Bay’s Friends of the Bay organization launched its “Re-Clam the Bay” initiative with its first clam drop in Oyster Bay Harbor. Members and Oyster Bay residents gathered at Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park where they loaded 10,000 clams onto three boats to be delivered to protected sanctuaries.
The hard-shell clams were dug by local baymen who sold them to Captree Clam, acting as a wholesaler. Friends of the Bay purchased the clams from there. Local baymen cannot sell directly to Friends of the Bay because of permitting constraints.
Christine Suter, Friends of the Bay executive director, said that the organization is aiming to help the environment while also supporting local baymen. She added that while there have been efforts to increase the oyster population in local waters, Friends of the Bay wanted to take a different approach to support biodiversity and baymen who cannot make a living from only harvesting oysters.
“It’s important to have both species in the bay,” Suter said, “not just for the environment, but also for the shell fishing industry.”
The locally dug clams are quahog clams, found in waters from northern Canada to Florida. Suter described using the species for the project as “healthier” for the local waters.
“We’re focused on regrowing native populations,” she said, “that have been in the bays for hundreds, thousands of years.”
Vice President Mitch Kramer said that these local clams are considered “superior” among restaurant owners and echoed Suter’s desire to help the community as well as the ecosystem.
“We said, ‘How great would it be if we could just support our local guys that are really hurting,’” he said, “’and get a better product?’”
Like oysters, clams are filter feeders, meaning they filter the water the occupy. They filter at different rates and can filter different types of algae.
Oysters prefer a harder seafloor and tend to remain in one place once they are settled, whereas clams have a foot that burrows into the seafloor and allows for more movement.
“It’s good to have the biodiversity too, between the two species,” Suter said, “because it’s not great to just rely on one species to do everything in the bay.” She also pointed out that oysters and clams are susceptible to different predators and diseases.
Both oysters and clams provide habitats for other creatures. Oysters build on top of each other, creating three-dimensional habitats. Clams do not attach to each other, instead creating environments for invertebrates living closer to the seafloor.
All of the clams Friends of the Bay put into the three town-protected sanctuaries were mature clams.
“Our hope is that they can spawn and help create new clams in the rest of the bay,” Suter explained, “so that hopefully they’ll supplement the existing populations.”
Friends of the Bay held a second clam drop on May 8. Suter said the organization hopes to have two more in the fall. A fundraiser “kick-off” event was held in March at the Oyster Bay Brewing Company to finance the clam purchase.
“We were very pleasantly surprised,” she said, “with the amount of people that came out and were supportive of it.”
Suter said that for the program to become annual, continued community support is required.
To learn more about Friends of the Bay, visit FriendsOfTheBay.org.
