Shellfishing Permits Go on Sale Monday - After Five-Year Hiatus

Residents who miss wading in Long Island Sound in search of clams, mussels and oysters have just four more days to wait until they can buy a shellfishing permit in Sullivan-Independence Hall.

"Monday morning," Ed Crowley, chairman of the town's Shellfish Commission, said Wednesday evening when asked if permits were on sale. "If we get an inch of rain, it will be closed, but it doesn't look like we're going to get rain. The permits go on sale Monday morning."

"We're thrilled they're open and people can start to go out clamming," Crowley added.

Fairfield's shellfish beds have been closed for five years because the water quality wasn't good enough to open them.

But the Bureau of Aquaculture agreed to let Fairfield reopen shellfish beds off Sasco Beach this year because the water quality had improved and was consistently good. The beds off Sasco Beach were closed due to septic system failures, but those problems have since been resolved, according to Crowley.

But the shellfish beds off Southport Beach will remain closed because the water quality off that beach isn't good enough yet to reopen them. Water off Southport Beach has high fecal coliform counts in Sasco Creek, which flows into Long Island Sound at Southport Beach, and Southport Harbor, which also flows into Long Island Sound by Southport Beach, according to Crowley.

Shellfishing permits, available beginning Monday morning at the town's Conservation Department in Sullivan-Independence Hall, will cost $4 each and are good through Dec. 31. The Shellfish Commission recently voted to lower the regular cost of the permit due to the shortened season this year and because shellfishing hadn't been allowed in Fairfield for five years.

The normal prices of $15 for a regular permit, $10 for people at least 60 years old and $5 for a 14-day permit will resume Jan. 1.

Crowley said a couple of weeks ago that the beds hadn't been restocked because that would have delayed their opening even longer.