September 18, 2026 — Legislators advanced a package of bills Thursday intended to help New Jersey’s aquaculture industry, with shellfish farmers complaining that state regulations stifle expansion and have driven some to move out of state.
The Assembly’s agriculture and natural resources committee listened to an hour of testimony during an afternoon hearing at the Statehouse, where shellfish farmers blasted a common boogeyman: the Department of Environmental Protection.
Oyster farmer Matt Gregg, co-founder and operator of the Barnegat Oyster Collective and president of the New Jersey Aquaculture Association, likened the department to a villain from a Scooby-Doo cartoon. Like Scooby’s gang of teenage detectives, shellfish farmers have had to band together to fight foes like the pandemic, marine predators, and extreme weather, Gregg said.
“But more often than not, the foe is the New Jersey DEP,” Gregg said. “If we don’t do something, we will die a death of a thousand cuts. We will regulate everyone into extinction.”
Larry Hajna, a department spokesman, declined to comment.
One of the industry’s biggest challenges, farmers testified, has been the state’s longtime narrow definition of aquaculture, which specifically bars “construction of facilities and appurtenant structures” from the definition. That has set aquaculture farmers up for zoning and permitting hurdles that land-based farmers don’t face and also discouraged commercial investors from investing, Gregg and other shellfish farmers testified.