The Clinton Town Council approved an appropriation of $20,267 to fund the purchase of a new boat and trailer for the Clinton Shellfish Commission. The boat will be used for patrolling, water samples, and restocking the shellfish.

At a Town Council meeting on May 14, the council unanimously approved the request made by shellfish commission chairmen Wayne Church. The boat will be purchased from Tim Basset Marina in Clinton.

Finance Director Bob Tait explained that in the 2022-’23 fiscal year budget the town had approved $22,700 for the boat. However, that purchase was never made, and since then, the price has nearly doubled to $42,967. The additional money will come from the Shellfish Commission special revenue fund.

“The reason for the increase is that COVID has pretty much tripled the price of boats,” Church told the council.

Church said the commission went out to bid for the boat last year and received no bids back. This year, a second round of bids received responses, and Church said the commission went with the low bid but called the boat “appropriate for the kind of work we have to do.”

“This work we do is to keep recreational as well as commercial beds open. That all depends on the water samples and meat samples we get. We have a responsibility to get those samples monthly, if not sooner if there’s a rain event,” Church explained after the meeting.

According to Church, those samples can only be collected on certain days at certain tides and must be collected year-round.

Currently, the commission has a boat that was purchased in 2007 via a grant. Church said the boat has had engine problems over the last few years, and with an aluminum hull in salt water, it has developed issues that affect its seaworthiness.

“It’s a heavy-duty boat, but it’s very light. With the engine and lightness of the boat, it became increasingly risky, especially being out in the Sound in the winter months,” Church said.

The new boat is about 20 feet long and offers more protection from the elements for anyone operating it. Though it is last year’s model, the boat, engine, and trailer are new. Church said the old boat could possibly be used by the town for harbor management work.

“It’s a loose end we need to work out,” Church when asked what will happen to the old boat.

The fact that monitoring Clinton’s shellfish beds has become an increased priority for the town over the last five years is something to be proud of.

Clinton’s shellfish beds were once the source of regionally famous oysters, but then the oysters began succumbing to disease. Pollution also affected the beds’ ability to grow edible shellfish so they were closed decades ago.

In 2004, the town began a concerted effort to reopen the beds, but those efforts were dealt serious setbacks by Tropical Storm Irene and Superstorm Sandy.

After years of additional study, in September 2018, the Department of Agriculture Bureau of Aquaculture finally agreed that presented water samples showed the beds could open in 2019, albeit seasonally.

In the years since then, the commission has continued to test the water quality and worked to expand the allowable shellfishing area and extend the season to year-round.

“It’s a really great thing to have this boat. It’s the town investing in a commission that does work that affects so much, from the environment to parks and recreation to the harbor to the beach. It’s really something to be proud of that we have shellfishing,” Church said.

For more information about Clinton shell fishing licenses and fees, visit clintonshellfish.org.