BRUNSWICK

Things are bad for Brunswick’s softshell clams, and getting worse for commercial harvesters of the mollusks. The Marine Resource Committee is considering extending the weekend closure of the town’s clam flats to commercial harvesters for the entire summer.

A hearing on the extended closures will be held May 7 at 7 p.m. at Hawthorne School, according to a written legal notice issued by the town on Tuesday.

The commission is considering making it unlawful to dig, take or posses more than one peck — or two gallons — of softshell clams or quahogs from Brunswick Waters on Saturdays and Sundays.

It had been illegal for any commercial harvester to harvest or take shellfish from the coastal waters of the town on Sundays, according to the town ordinance. However, earlier this year, the committee decided to ban commercial harvesting on Saturdays as well as Sundays through June 1.

Now, the committee is con- sidering closing the flats on weekends throughout the entire summer, according to Marine Resource Officer and Harbor Master Dan Devereaux.

The closure will also give the clams additional time to reproduce, Devereaux said.

“It leaves more product in the flats for harvesters to harvest over an extended period of time,” said Devereaux.

Weekend closures are not typical of Brunswick’s history of clam harvesting, although Freeport has had summers in which that town has only allowed commercial harvesting three or four days a week, said Devereaux.

Devereaux said he has heard mixed reaction from commercial harvesters. “They make their living off it, so the more days it’s closed, the less opportunity it is to make money, particularly in the summer when prices are high,” he said.

Commercial diggers are usually able to bring in about two to two-and-a-half bushels per day. Prices for clams are typically about $75 a bushel, or about $2.50 per pound.

According to Devereaux, the average commercial harvester can bring in $50,000 a year, a figure that does not take into account operational expenses.

The softshell clam population is “pretty dismal,” said Devereaux, based on population surveys from 2013.

The population appeared to spike in 2011, when 29,612 bushels, or about 1.5 million pounds, of softshell clams were taken. Overall, though, softshell clams in Brunswick have been declining. In 2013, the harvest fell to just over 17,000 bushels, or 850,000 pounds.

Some commercial harvesters have speculated that there may not be enough clams of legally harvestable size to sustain the harvest through mid-July, said Devereaux.

Softshell clams under 2 inches may not be taken, but it is a dearth of those younger, juvenile clams — so important to the overall population — that is worrying harvesters and conservationists.

In response to a recent survey of the clam population, the Marine Resources Committee voted Feb. 11 to set the number of commercial licenses at 50, down from 57 in the previous year.

The decline in softshell clams are due mainly to green crab infestation, which preys on young clams unable to burrow into deeper, harder sediment. The acidification of the ocean is also having a detrimental impact on the clams.

In March, the committee decided to ban the commercial harvest of quahogs in Brunswick from December to April each year, in order to protect the species during cold months when the quahogs are most vulnerable.

Brunswick manages about 500 acres of shellfish growing areas, according to the town’s website. Commercial harvesters and recreational harvesters take more than $2 million worth of shellfish from Brunswick waters annually.

jswinconeck@timesrecord.com

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