News 12/Newsday report: Baymen at odds over 'bogus tickets'

A battle between Long Island's baymen and the Island's oldest and largest shellfish farming operation is brewing in Oyster Bay.

Baymen say Frank M. Flower & Sons Oyster Company, which leases about one-third of the bay for shellfish farming, keeps calling 911 and making false reports.

Rob DeFeo, a second-generation bayman who learned from his father, claims baymen are being targeted by Nassau County police.

"I had an officer tell me to my face, 'Just so you know, I am out to arrest your son,'" his father told News 12 Long Island.

Flower and Sons say they call authorities when the baymen rake in the company's territory.

"We don't want any problems out on the bay, if we can help it …but if we do see problems, we need to report it," says Joseph Vinarski, of Flower and Sons.

Unlike the baymen in Oyster Bay that use hand rakes to dig for clams, the shellfish farm operation uses hydraulic dredges.

Both sides have been in a long legal dispute over the town's lease, its boundaries and the use of hydraulic dredges, which the baymen claim kills marine life.

Nassau Police Detective Lt. Richard LeBrun responded to News 12, saying that "The Nassau County Police Marine Bureau has intensified patrols in Oyster Bay Harbor since receiving complaints regarding legal territorial markings and encroachment.  With these patrols, there have been occasions when our police officers have issued both summons and/or verbal warnings if a safety or navigation law violation is observed."