June 30, 2017 — The bounteous shellfish here in this hamlet on the North Shore of Long Island are so iconic, they were extolled by Cole Porter in his song “Let’s Do It,’’ with its line about oysters down in Oyster Bay doing it.
While the lyric connotes cozy relations between the famously fertile shellfish of this bivalve capital, feelings among shellfishermen themselves are decidedly less friendly.
Locals describe them as the clam wars, with two sides waging a public battle for decades over rights and practices in Oyster Bay Harbor, which remains the most productive shellfishing habitat in New York State.
The dispute pits the baymen who hand-rake for clams against the Frank M. Flower & Sons shellfish company, which uses dredge boats to mechanically harvest the clams and oysters it farms on a swath of 1,800 acres leased from the Town of Oyster Bay.
Each side accuses the other of intimidation and harassment, in a battle that has included lawsuits and letter-writing campaigns, as well as arrests and police reports for episodes that include vandalism, assault and poaching.
The baymen have raised numerous challenges — in court, in public protests and with governmental agencies — about the legitimacy of the company’s lease of the town’s prime shellfishing area, and its dredging, which the baymen claim threatens their livelihoods by damaging clam populations on nonleased areas.
The company has long called its dredging harmless, but now federal and state officials, responding to baymen’s complaints, are reviewing the company’s permits. That process is being watched by the Town of Oyster Bay officials who administer the lease, though they would not comment any further about the dispute.
The Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency conducting the review, would not provide details on the matter. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officials said in a statement that the review would examine Flower’s permits and compliance with harvesting rules and then arrive at a decision “on any changes or limits needed to the company’s permit to ensure that Oyster Bay remains protected from overharvesting and environmental damage.”