Healey Brings $300,000 in Relief to North Shore Clammers

The checks put some needed money back into the pockets of harvesters who were forced off the flats through no fault of their own. ”

Gov. Maura Healey came to Essex Monday bearing $300,000 in relief for North Shore shellfish harvesters who lost more than two weeks of work during the peak summer season after a large-scale sewage spill in Haverhill forced the emergency closure of clam flats from Salisbury to Gloucester.

The money was divided among approximately 130 commercial shellfish harvesters, Healey said, with individual checks ranging from roughly $3,000 to $6,700.

“I hope this helps people,” Healey told a gathering of local diggers and state and town officials at Woodman’s of Essex.

But what began as an event marking compensation for 12 lost days on the flats quickly broadened into a discussion of the challenges facing one of the North Shore’s oldest working industries — from weather-related closures and shrinking areas available for harvesting to the exploding population of invasive green crabs that prey on soft-shell clams.

Locals know the setting for Monday’s visit was fitting.  Rhonda Woodman welcomed Healey with a quick history lesson: Woodman’s opened in 1914 and, two years later, the family created the fried clam.

Joining Healey—who sat in a booth between Essex clammers John Grundstrom and Scott Adams were state Sen. Bruce Tarr, state Reps. Dru Tarr and Kristin Kassner, Essex Board of Selectmen member Peter Phippen, and Town Administrator Brendhan Zubricki, along with a contingent of Essex clammers who came not only to collect their checks but to share their concerns with someone who can make things happen.

Twelve Days Lost

The trouble began June 29, when a sewer force main failure in Haverhill released untreated sewage into the Merrimack River.  The MA Division of Marine Fisheries responded with an emergency closure of shellfish growing areas N1 through N14, affecting waters—and in some cases beaches—in Gloucester, Essex, Ipswich, Newbury, Newburyport, Rockport, Rowley, and Salisbury.  In an abundance of caution, Essex closed Clammers Beach to beachgoers for two days before testing showed the waters were safe for swimming.

The closures were required as a public health precaution under national shellfish sanitation standards.  It also came at a particularly painful time for commercial harvesters, stretching across the July Fourth holiday and one of the busiest periods of the summer shellfish season.  Prices for fried clams in regional restaurants soared.

DMF subsequently tested shellfish from affected areas for indicators of contamination. Those tests came back negative July 9, allowing the most active areas to begin reopening as weather conditions permitted.

“Shellfish beds needed to be closed in a time of peak demand for shellfish around the July 4th holiday, dealing a devastating blow to those who earn a living on the clam flats,” said Rep. Dru Tarr.

The state relief program was designed to compensate harvesters for the maximum estimated value of shellfish they could have harvested from the affected growing areas during the shutdown.

Healey acknowledged the particular hardship caused by losing those days and told the diggers her administration is also looking for ways to give them more time on the water.

Last week, the state announced revised rainfall-related closure requirements for Plum Island Sound following two years of DMF water-quality research.  State officials estimate the changes could reduce rain closures by more than half in much of the Sound and provide more than 200 commercial shellfish harvesters with an average of 72 additional harvesting days each year.

The Essex diggers told Healey that expanding the amount of productive territory available for commercial harvesting could help too.  She said she’d consider the idea.

The Green Crab Scourge

When Healey asked the clammers about the biggest challenges they face, the conversation quickly turned to green crabs.

The invasive species has become a persistent threat to New England’s tidal ecosystems, feeding on juvenile clams and other shellfish and damaging eelgrass habitat.  Local diggers can harvest the crabs, Healey was told, but there is little economic incentive to do so because there is no significant commercial market for them.

Bruce Tarr, who chairs the Northeast Coastal Coalition, told Healey the group has successfully secured a modest till—between $100,000 and $200,000 annually—to encourage fishermen to remove green crabs.  But, he said, creating a viable market for the invasive species would be the preferred, more lasting solution.

Potential uses are already emerging, he said.  Tarr pointed to green crabs as a possible source for fertilizer and noted that some chefs have begun experimenting with them as food.  He also cited the potential commercial value of “chitin,” a compound found in crustacean shells, with pharmaceutical applications. 

Healey was encouraged.

Tarr also raised the possibility of using a state Division of Marine Fisheries property in Newburyport as part of an effort to manage harvested green crabs.

Healey appeared receptive.

“You’d have a benevolent landlord,” she said, smiling.

The exchange shifted Monday’s visit beyond the immediate matter of reimbursing diggers for a single emergency closure.  For an industry dependent on water quality, weather, healthy clam populations and access to productive flats, the focus was on how to keep commercial shellfishing economically sustainable in the years ahead.

Healey repeatedly returned to the importance of the North Shore and its working waterfronts.

“It’s a beautiful, beautiful part of our state,” she said.

Healey seemed to demonstrate specific familiarity with one of Essex’s other longstanding marine headaches: navigating the Essex River and its recurring need for dredging.

“There are places where you can get stuck,” she said.

For the Essex diggers gathered at Woodman’s, Monday was ultimately about both the immediate and the long term.  The checks put some needed money back into the pockets of harvesters who were forced off the flats through no fault of their own.  Their conversation with the governor made clear that keeping clammers working will require attention to considerably more than one sewage spill.