FREEPORT – Local clammers, caught up in a frustrating summer, have yet to work out a job description for a municipal shellfish coordinator with the town, the chairman of the Freeport Shellfish Conservation Commission said last week.

Earlier this summer, the Town Council approved $15,000 for a position that could be part of Shellfish Warden Tom Kay’s job, or could involve the hiring of a part-time employee. The allocation represented a signficant scaleback from the commission’s original proposal, which had called for around $90,000 to pay for a regional coordinator involving Brunswick and Harpswell. The intent all along has been to combat the invasive green crabs, which are eating their way through the soft shell clam population. A green-crab study funded by the University of Maine is under way this summer.

Del Arris, the chairman, said that the commission will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 14, at the Freeport Community Center. But the shellfish coordinator’s job description will not be on the agenda, he said.

Arris said that the commission needs first to work on internal matters, such as details of clam flats surveys and determining “points” for clammers, according to how many hours of conservation work they have logged. This past spring, the commission decided that licensed clammers in Freeport must have “conservation points” in order to maintain that license.

Potential survey dates need to be established, Arris said. On the flats surveys, two clammers obtain clam samples in the mud while three recorders wash and record the samples.

“Once we get this straightened out, we will start adding the wish list for the shellfish coordinator job description,” Arris said.

Arris said that local clam diggers have had a rough summer. Heavy rains, the last of them in late July, as well as a sewer backup, have closed down the upper end of the Harraseeket River to clamming, he said.

“There’s a lot of frustrated diggers,” Arris said. “It’s been a tough summer. That’s been the story of the whole summer. We’ve been out digging in places where we’ve been digging all summer. It’s no fun.”

Arris, Town Manager Peter Joseph, Kay and his boss, Police Chief Jerry Schofield, had early discussions regarding a job description for a shellfish coordinator this spring. But little more has been done.

Joseph said that both the clammers and Kay are in the middle of their busy season.

“Right now, in the summer, Kay is working on enforcement,” Joseph said. “Fall activities such as scientific surveys could work. We’re going to talk a little bit more in the coming months. I’m ready to work on these issues, and getting the duties lined up as soon as the commission is.”

Joseph praised Arris for staying in touch with town officials.

“He’s doing a great job,” Joseph said. “He’s done well with communications.”

Meanwhile, University of Maine marine ecologist Brian Beal is conducting green-crab studies along the town’s clam flats for the second straight year. Last year, the town funded a $100,000 study intended to combat the green crab population and clam conservation. This year, Beal and his team are working with a $200,000 University of Maine grant.

Beal said last Friday that he is conducting six study techniques at various clam flats. One of them, in which 50,000 baby clams were placed in barrels known as upwellers on June 10, has produced telling results.

“That one’s kind of blown me out of the water,” Beal said.

Clams measuring 1/16^th of an inch were placed in the barrels, sitting in water at the mouth of the Harraseeket, to feed on plankton and grow, protected from predators. By July 12, Beal said, they had grown to 1/8^th of an inch. Last week, they were at three-quarters of an inch.

“The density was so great in the upwellers, we had to plant them under netting, on the Wolfe’s Neck side,” Beal said. “The growth was phenomenal.”

A typical harvest size for clams is 21?4 to 3 inches, he said. The state minimum is 2 inches.

Beal said that all of the studies would be completed in November.

As for the green crabs, Beal has seen a difference in their population from last year. On May 1, he and his team set out green-crab traps in the upper and lower stretches of the river. The traps are fished at high tide.

“Through the end of June, the catch was one-tenth as large as last year,” he said. “Since then, the volume has been picking up. It’s still not as large as 2013. There are not that many large ones, but many smaller ones.”

Beal speculated that the cold winter’s effect on water temperatures might have impacted the green crab population, but wasn’t sure why larger crabs would be more affected.

“The numbers are still pretty high,” he said.

Beal said that a shellfish coordinator should be “engaged” with these types of techniques.

“Eventually, we’re going to be able to say, ‘Here’s what works, here’s what doesn’t work,’” he said. “It’s all about awareness.”