Oyster Bay to buy new vessel as it plans to regrow oyster and clam population

Inside a small shellfish hatchery overlooking Oyster Bay Harbor, a team of workers is readying for millions of shellfish seeds. Their goal in the coming months is ambitious — to disperse those tiny oysters and clams across Oyster Bay and Cold Spring harbors to replenish the badly diminished mollusk populations.

To travel hundreds of acres of water, the town is planning to purchase a new vessel so it's able to scatter more clams and oysters across a vast expanse of newly protected areas. The town’s Department of Environmental Resources has three boats in its fleet, though only one is primarily used for shellfish seeding — an aging Boston Whaler, officials said.

The town is looking to buy a 19- to 21-foot aluminum, flat-bottomed workboat. 

Tim Gilmartin, the town's hatchery manager, said the plan is to use both the old whaler and the new boat.

“The hope is to use everything that we have,” Gilmartin said. “We’ve learned to be a little scrappy here.”

The Oyster Bay Town Board authorized the vessel's purchase for as much as $130,000. The town will start requesting bids soon, Brian Nevin, a town spokesman, said in an email.

“In another month or so, we're going to get hopefully around 20 million seed that we're going to be growing out all summer long," Gilmartin said. The hope, he added, is "those shellfish will repopulate and benefit the water quality and the blue economy here in Oyster Bay."

Nearly 18 months ago, the town gained access to 1,400 acres of the two harbors. For three decades, Frank M. Flower & Sons had exclusive access to harvest the underground land there.

The town declined to renew the company's lease, which expired on Sept. 30, 2024. Oyster Bay imposed a shell-fishing moratorium in those waters that took effect a day later.

In October 2025, the town opened 1,192 of those acres to harvesting, joining 2,874 acres in town waters that were already open to the public. The town also set aside 185 acres as shellfish sanctuary areas, where harvesting is banned — adding to 55 acres of prohibited areas. The town protected another 372 acres as marine management areas, where harvesting is off-limits but can be opened to the public at a later date. 

Assemb. Jake Blumencranz (R-Oyster Bay) secured a $130,000 grant for the purchase. He said the shellfish population in the town is in “dire contrast” with where it needs to be.

Frank M. Flower & Sons ceased hatchery operations in 2019 — and stopped seeding the bay — when it learned the town was not planning to renew its lease.

Repeated shellfish harvesting in Oyster Bay waters, without simultaneous seedings, caused the shellfish population to fall to "extremely low levels," a town-commissioned survey found last year. 

Oysters serve as filters that improve water quality and marine habitat, working as a counter to water pollution that has plagued the North Shore.

Oyster Bay plans to build a larger shellfish hatchery to replace the facility previously operated by Frank M. Flower & Sons. 

Blumencranz said he hopes the vessel can help the hatchery team studying the town’s new preservation areas. He added: “I think it’ll be a valuable asset to the town for many years to come.”

By Joseph Ostapiuk

joseph.ostapiuk@newsday.com@OstapiukJ