The town’s Shellfish Conservation Committee is in turmoil as panelists accuse each other of mismanaging the town’s clam beds.

The strife — on display at a Selectboard meeting Wednesday — prompted Selectboard Chairman David King to offer to have selectmen “referee” the committee’s next meeting.

Shellfish committee Chairman Dan Harrington and member Tim Larochelle alleged Wednesday that member Andy Cromwell is trying to oust Harrington as chairman. 

Cromwell has accused the committee of a lack of oversight and claimed there is a lack of harvestable shellfish in town. Harrington and Larochelle disagreed, saying they’ve spent 259 volunteer hours between them, testing and seeding clam flats. 

Cromwell claims undermanagement, overfishing and a lack of adequate conservation work have contributed to a decline in clam populations along the Woolwich coast. 

“You guys are planting the seeds where you want them and (where) you don’t want anyone else to go,” Cromwell said.

Cromwell denied he was looking to replace Harrington  — only that he is looking “to help the resource.”

Harrington and Larochelle referred selectmen to minutes from a December shellfish committee meeting, in which Cromwell is quoted as recommending “that Dan not be re-elected as chair.”

Harrington said “it is obvious to me that communication between the members of the committee is fractured to say the least.”

He said the committee, at his suggestion, had reduced the number of commercial licenses sold — from 10 resident and one nonresident to six resident and one nonresident. The panel also raised the fee from $250 to $400. 

Harrington told town officials Cromwell wanted to ask the Selectboard for money to help the committee, but that the policy was to maintain the committee through license fees.

Harrington continued that, as a harvester who spends a lot of time on the mud, his seeding work has been a huge success. “If continued,” he said, “this will help to sustain the clamming in this town for a long time to come.”

Larochelle said he has turned over many sections of mud and found plenty of clams. 

No flats were open in town when he joined the committee two years ago, he said. Now, Montsweag Bay is open and Brookings Bay is open on a seasonal basis.

“Andy wants to close Montsweag Bay and have someone reseed it, which has already been done,” Larochelle said. “We have no dead mud. Period.”

King said selectmen have “no intention of replacing the committee chairman. “This needs to be settled by the committee,” he said.

And he advised the trio that selectmen may sit in on their next meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. on Feb. 5.

“One or two of us can come and act as referees if you want,” King said.