Shellfish Ban Continues in New Jersey

If you are looking forward to some great New Jersey shellfish for your holiday weekend meals, look no further. In fact, don’t look at all because there has been a week–long ban on shellfish from New Jersey waters since August 27, the day before Irene hit. The ban continues until further notice.

According to the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, commercial, and recreational harvesters, as well as certified shellfish dealers, are restricted from distributing or consuming shellfish from the state’s closed shellfish beds because of the threat of bacteria borne illness.

Because of the excessive run off and disturbances in NJ ocean waters and estuaries caused by hurricane Irene, bacteria levels have exceeded the federal criteria allowed. Clams, mussels and oysters are filter feeders that can accumulate harmful amounts of bacteria.

Tom Austin, owner of was relieved to explain, “Thankfully, I get my shellfish from out of state so I have plenty. Surprisingly, the prices from the distributors have gone up only slightly. A lot of seafood stores have closed in the past and people have curtailed their buying. You can’t take advantage because people will just stop coming back.”

There are about 720,000 acres of shellfish beds in the state and the DEP will continue to test waters at the beds across New Jersey. Reggie Delphin, owner of Freeman’s Fish Market in Maplewood, which supplies fish to Eden Gourmet in South Orange, shared some of the details, “When we buy shellfish, it comes with tags and we must keep them for the health department. If people get sick, the department will be able to trace it back to the source. Everybody knows they can’t sell local shellfish if there is a ban.”

Once the water testing meets the federal standard, a minimum of seven days must pass before the shellfish tissue is tested. This is to ensure no bacteria are present in the shellfish. This process verifies that bacteria have had a chance to be flushed from the shellfish, through their own natural processes.

“I guess we’re going to have a clam-less clambake,” sighed Caldwell resident, Lauren Benyo. “This weekend is our fourth annual. We’re staying with the shellfish theme and decorations, just no shellfish. We got other food from Eight Hills Catering in Verona so that will be good. It’s all about the people anyway and we will have about 50 here on Sunday.”

The DEP monitors, classifies and enforces shellfish regulations. They collaborate with the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration to confirm that shellfish are safely harvested in state waters.

Ed McHugh is a recreational clammer and Captain of Edventures, his boat in Beach Haven West. McHugh commented, “This ban was not thoroughly announced by the media until the end of this week. Because I’m a boater, I watch and listen to all the local news, weather and boating channels constantly and I just started hearing about this on Thursday. This was news to a lot of my friends, too.”

The DHSS Food Safety Program regularly inspects shellfish processing plants to ensure they follow regulations that outline health and safety precautions. Shellfish samples are regularly collected from harvest areas, certified shellfish dealers and retailers for bacteriological examination. All wholesale shellfish dealers must handle, process, and ship shellfish under sanitary conditions and maintain records verifying that the shellfish were obtained from approved areas.

So it appears that if you’re getting shellfish this weekend, you can be pretty sure it had to pass all the testing and is probably from an out-of-state source.