DOVER – Delaware’s Shellfish Advisory Council will meet at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 10, in the DNREC Auditorium, 89 Kings Highway, Dover, DE 19901.

The Council will discuss the oyster stock status and the 2018 oyster quota, the 2018 outlook for blue crab, and several other shellfish topics. For more information, including the meeting agenda, visit the Delaware Public Meeting Calendar at https://publicmeetings.delaware.gov/Meeting/55867.

For more information on Delaware fisheries, please call DNREC’s Fisheries Section at 302-739-9914.

Media contact: Joanna Wilson, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902.

Vol. 48, No. 2

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DOVER – DNREC’s Division of Fish & Wildlife will begin accepting more Inland Bays shellfish aquaculture lease applications postmarked after midnight Tuesday, Dec. 5 on a first-come, first-served basis.

Initial applications were made after a lottery was held in May to determine the order of selection. Now that all of the lottery participants have selected their potential lease locations, applications are being accepted by DNREC for the remainder of the available acreage.

Beginning after midnight on Dec. 5, applications and a required $300 application fee can be sent via certified mail to the Division of Fish & Wildlife, 89 Kings Highway, Dover, DE 19901. No in-person or electronically-delivered applications will be accepted. The order of the applications for selecting lease locations will be determined by their postmarked dates.

Available acres within the state-approved Shellfish Aquaculture Development Areas (SADA) are indicated on the interactive shellfish map, and the SADA application is on the DNREC Shellfish Aquaculture Program webpage. Applicants may also apply for acreage outside of SADA areas, via a separate non-SADA application, also linked to the webpage.

For more information on Inland Bays’ shellfish aquaculture, or on the first-come, first-served application submission process, please visit DNREC’s Shellfish Aquaculture webpage, or contact DNREC’s Division of Fish & Wildlife 302-735-2960.

Vol. 47, No. 252

Contact: Joanna Wilson, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

DOVER – The Delaware Division of Fish & Wildlife’s shellfish aquaculture program has posted an interactive online map that provides site-specific information helpful for selecting shellfish aquaculture lease locations in the Inland Bays. The map shows those areas covered by the recent Statewide Activity Approval (SAA) issued by DNREC’s Wetlands and Subaqueous Lands Section, which facilitates the expedited processing of shellfish aquaculture lease applications.

The interactive map, which depicts prohibited and seasonally-closed shellfishing areas, allows users to gather information on shellfish aquaculture areas covered by the SAA, including location coordinates and which acres have been sampled and are eligible for leasing based on natural hard clam density. The map also will serve as a tool for identifying shellfish aquaculture acreage as it is leased in the future.

DNREC will initiate leasing of shellfish aquaculture acreage through an initial lottery and begin accepting aquaculture lease applications soon after the scheduled issuance later this month of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ new nationwide permit and regional conditions, which are anticipated to govern shellfish aquaculture in specific areas of the Inland Bays.

Media contact: Joanna Wilson, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902.

Vol. 47, No. 63

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DOVER – A DNREC public hearing on proposed changes to Delaware’s Shellfish Sanitation Regulations is set for Monday, June 27, at 6 p.m. in the DNREC Auditorium, 89 Kings Highway, Dover, DE 19901. The hearing was inadvertently listed in the state register of regulations as taking place June 2. More information about the proposed changes to shellfish sanitation regulations can be found in the State Register of Regulations.

Media Contact: Michael Globetti, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

Vol. 46, No. 206

DOVER – DNREC Secretary David Small has issued a Secretary’s Order for closure of a conditionally-approved shellfish harvest area located in the northeastern corner of Rehoboth Bay, effective Monday, March 21. The order notes that the area designated for closure is near the City of Rehoboth Waste Water Treatment Plant, but makes clear that the decision by DNREC’s Shellfish Program to recommend closure was based on an assessment of theoretical waste water discharge dilutions from the US Food and Drug Administration – and not on water quality changes in the area.

A review by DNREC’s Shellfish Program in the Division of Watershed Stewardship determined that the conditionally-approved seasonal area on Rehoboth Bay no longer meets conditions to allow seasonal harvesting, according to the FDA’s recently-revised theoretical wastewater discharge dilution criteria. The previous seasonal classification, from Dec. 1 through April 15, was based on adjacent marina use and historic low wastewater effluent discharge levels during winter months from the Rehoboth Wastewater Treatment Plant. The plant discharges to the Lewes & Rehoboth Canal, which connects at the northeast corner of Rehoboth Bay.

The Secretary’s Order notes that seasonal and prohibited shellfish areas are intended to act as buffers to allow for safe shellfish harvesting within a growing area. Shellfish waters are classified based on the assumption that shellfish may be eaten raw, and these buffers are an effective method of mitigating any impacts to water quality from potential pollution sources.

The area closed by the Secretary’s Order – to be clearly marked by signs posted by DNREC’s Shellfish Program – consists of “areas north of a line drawn from the tip of White Oak Point in a southeasterly direction to a point identified as being directly west of the south submarine observation tower at Delaware Seashore State Park, and south of the Lewes and Rehoboth Canal mouth, then in an easterly direction to the south submarine observation tower,” according to Michael Bott, DNREC Shellfish Program environmental scientist.

Shellfish harvesting classifications for all Delaware waters can be found on the DNREC website’s Delaware Shellfish Program webpage. An interactive map on the webpage allows users to locate their exact location on the shellfish map with the use of a smartphone or tablet. For those who do not use or have personal devices, DNREC also posts notification signs for identifying shellfish harvest area boundaries.

The Secretary’s Order for the shellfish area closure can be found on the DNREC website at http://www.dnrec.delaware.gov/Info/Pages/SecOrders_Regulations.aspx.

Media Contact: Michael Globetti, DNREC Public Affairs, 302-739-9902

Vol. 46, No. 73