May 31, 2018 — ESSEX, Mass. — State fisheries regulators reopened two of Essex’s clam-harvesting areas on Wednesday, helping mitigate potential demand issues for restaurants and seafood dealers following Sunday’s town-wide closure because of sewage contamination.
Following a second examination, the state Division of Marine Fisheries reopened two harvesting areas — N 7-4 and N 7-5 — that overlap into Ipswich and are among the farthest away from the Main Street area where the sewer pipe broke Saturday night and sent its contents surging into the Essex River.
The rest of the town’s clam flats remain closed indefinitely, with no indication when they might reopen.
According to the order DMF issued Sunday to the towns of Essex and Ipswich, as well as the city of Gloucester, the entire N 7 Essex Bay area was closed to clamming.
The N7 Essex Bay area, according to the closure notice, includes “the waters, flats and tributaries of Essex Bay in the Towns of Ipswich and Essex and the City of Gloucester, inside and south and west of a line drawn across the Essex Bay inlet from the southern most point of Crane Beach in the Town of Ipswich easterly to the northern most point of Two Penny Loaf in Gloucester.”
The reopening of the two harvesting areas at Middle Castle Neck River and Lower Castle Neck River went into effect at sunrise Wednesday and clammers wasted little time resuming the harvest.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times