DEM ANNOUNCES EMERGENCY SHELLFISH CLOSURE IN BRISTOL HARBOR

News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade St., Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771   www.dem.ri.gov

For Release:  March 16, 2015
Contact: Town of Bristol: Jose DaSilva, 401-253-8877
DEM: Gail Mastrati 401-222-4700 Ext. 2402; or
Cindy Hannus, 401-222-4700 Ext. 7241

DEM ANNOUNCES EMERGENCY SHELLFISH CLOSURE IN BRISTOL HARBOR BEGINNING SUNRISE TUESDAY, MARCH 17 DUE TO REPORTED SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT DISINFECTION MALFUNCTION

PROVIDENCE – The Department of Environmental Management has announced that in addition to currently Prohibited waters within Bristol Harbor and surrounding Hog Island, the remaining waters of Bristol Harbor and in the vicinity of Hog Island (see attached map) will be closed to shellfish harvesting beginning at sunrise Tuesday, March 17, until further notice.  The closure is being enacted because of information provided to DEM by the Town of Bristol of a lack of disinfection that resulted in elevated bacteria levels in plant effluent.  A town official notified DEM this morning of the issue and it is being investigated.

The Bristol Harbor Master will collect water samples in Bristol Harbor on Tuesday to test for fecal coliform bacteria levels.  The DEM will make a determination on the duration of the closure based upon the Department’s review of those sample results.

Specifically, all waters North and East of a line from the Southern tip of Poppasquash Point, Bristol to the Southwestern extremity of Arnold Point in Portsmouth, where a DEM range marker has been established, will be closed to shellfish harvesting beginning at sunrise on March 17, until further notice.  Refer to the attached map as reference.

In addition, to accommodate previously scheduled delivery of oyster seed, all aquaculturists in areas where the emergency shellfish closures have been enacted will be allowed access to their leases for the purposes of preparing for and planting the oyster seed.  All other activities on the aquaculture lease, including but not limited to the harvest of shellfish, will remain prohibited until the water quality is acceptable to allow for harvest.

Aquaculturists seeking permission to prepare for or plant seed under this emergency authorization are required to contact Dave Beutel, CRMC’s aquaculture coordinator at 401-783-7587.

A DEM investigation of the failure is underway.  The facility is currently operating normally.  For more information on the plant disinfection failure, contact the Bristol Wastewater Treatment Facility superintendent, Jose DaSilva, at 401-253-8877.

For more information about the shellfish closure, contact Cindy Hannus in DEM’s Office of Water Resources at 401-222-4700, Ext. 7241.

DEM maintains a 24-hour shellfishing hotline with recorded updated information on shellfish closure areas.  That number is 222-2900.

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To see the official press release, please click here.

Developing Disease Resistant Oysters

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PLEASE JOIN US 

for refreshments and a discussion of the role probiotics may play in protecting juvenile oysters from harmful bacteria.

Guest speaker Dr. David Rowley of the University of Rhode Island has been studying the effects of probiotics, “good bacteria,” for reducing mortality in larval oysters, and will discuss the results from his most recent work and the potential implications for Rhode Island’s shellfish industry.

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Developing Disease-Resistant Oysters

Monday, March 23
5-7 p.m.

Coastal Institute Auditorium
URI Narragansett Bay Campus | South Ferry Rd | Narragansett 02882

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Dr. David Rowley, associate professor of biomedical sciences and pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Rhode Island, has explored natural pathways for combating disease outbreaks in shellfish, specifically the eastern oyster because of the high mortality rates in cultured and wild populations due to bacterial and parasitic diseases.

These diseases affect larval and juvenile stages of oyster growth, and are a major problem for the shellfish aquaculture industry.

Dr. Rowley will share successful results in his lab research studying the effects of probiotics — bacteria that promote disease-resistance — for reducing mortality rates in larval oyster, as well as results from exploring their application in oyster hatcheries that could have implications for Rhode Island’s shellfish aquaculture industry.

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RSVP

This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited, so please RSVP to mmhaas@uri.edu  to reserve a place or for more information.

The Coastal State series is sponsored by Rhode Island Sea Grant with the support of the URI Graduate School of Oceanography, URI College of the Environment and Life Sciences, and the URI Coastal Institute. 

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RIDEM Launches Shellfish Program Webpages

This is just a note to let you all know that RIDEM Office of Water Resources’ Shellfish Program has gone live with a new and improved website: RIDEM Office of Water Resources Shellfish Program (If you happen to go to our old page remember to refresh your browser and clear your cache to load the new page)

The new webpages contain a wealth of information about our program along with links to various other programs and agencies that interconnect with our state’s shellfish program.  We listened to our local recreational and commercial shell fishermen and incorporated the comments we heard into these new pages.

Now available on line from our web site is an interactive mapping application of the classified shellfish waters of the state, Interactive Shellfish Map.  Directly from this map you can connect to the individual growing area descriptions and the presiding shoreline survey of the area.  There are numerous query options to search the map, such as area name, classification type or street address to name a few.  Printed maps can also be generated directly from this application to a scale suited to the individual’s interest.  It should be noted that these maps are to be used as a reference tool only.  The legal description of the area’s classification is contained in the document, “Notice of Polluted Shellfishing Grounds”. 

In addition to the new web pages we now have established an email account that goes directly to the shellfish program staff.  Please contact us directly at our new address:  dem.shellfish@dem.ri.gov  to let us know of missing or damaged closure signs, requests for data or documents, or questions related to any of the topics overseen by Office of Water Resources’ shellfish program.

We are continuing to work on the Harvester Education component – so that webpage is under construction but is scheduled to go live in early fall of 2015.

Now if we could only get spring to arrive so we can get back out there harvesting!

DEM Announces Emergency Closure of Mount Hope Bay and Kickemuit River

Shared on behalf of the RI Department of Environmental Management

News Release
RI Department of Environmental Management
235 Promenade St., Providence, RI 02908
(401) 222-2771   www.dem.ri.gov

For Release: February 25, 2015
Contact: Gail Mastrati 222-4700 ext. 2402

DEM ANNOUNCES EMERGENCY CLOSURE OF MOUNT HOPE BAY AND KICKEMUIT RIVER TO SHELLFISHING BEGINNING THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26 DUE TO FAILURE OF DISINFECTION SYSTEM AT FALL RIVER PLANT

PROVIDENCE – The Department of Environmental Management announces that conditionally-approved areas of Mount Hope Bay and the Kickemuit River will be closed to shellfishing beginning at sunrise on Thursday, February 26.  DEM enacted the emergency closure because an estimated 600,000 gallons of non-disinfected effluent was discharged todayfrom the Fall River Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility between 8:50 a.m. and 9:50 a.m. Officials from the Massachusetts facility notified DEM’s Office of Water Resources this morning of the disinfection system failure.

Specifically, the closure will affect the following waters: All waters of the Kickemuit River and Mt. Hope Bay south of a line from the range marker at the eastern extension of Patterson Avenue in the Laurel Park section of Warren to the flagpole on the opposite eastern shore on the property of #61 Asylum Road in Touisset, and north and west of a line from Bristol Point to the Buoy “R4” channel marker located on the southerly side of the Mount Hope Bay channel, that intersects with a line from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management range marker located approximately midway on Touisset Point to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management range marker located on Common Fence Point in Portsmouth.

DEM plans to reopen the conditionally approved areas of Mount Hope Bay and the Kickemuit River to shellfishing at sunrise on Thursday, March 5, weather permitting.

DEM maintains a 24-hour shellfishing hotline with recorded updated information on shellfish closure areas.  That number is 222-2900.

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To read the full press release, please click here. 

 

Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation Research Video

Shared on behalf of the The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation

The Commercial Fisheries Research Foundation (CFRF) is pleased to announce the release of a documentary video summarizing a recently completed collaborative research project on quahogs in Narragansett Bay. The project was conducted by a team of scientists from Roger Williams University and the University of Rhode Island, managers from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and commercial shellfishermen. It was supported through the CFRF’s Southern New England Collaborative Research Initiative (SNECRI), a program funded under NOAA Award #NA08NMF4720595 and made possible through efforts by U.S. Senator Jack Reed.

To view the documentary video please click here.

For more information on this and other CFRF supported projects please click here.

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