The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control updated its shellfish aquaculture regulations.
The Shellfish Aquaculture Task Force formed in January 2024 and met six times to develop recommendations for the industry in Delaware.
The top three suggestions turned into the amendments, which reduce annual planting requirements and timelines, remove some gear marking requirements and remove import permit requirements for some in-state hatcheries.
The amendments include a reduction of the annual shellfish planting requirement from 100 thousand to 50 thousand shellfish per acre. It also lowered the harvest timeline from 60 to 36 months to hit that number.
It also lowered the timeline for the harvesting of 2 thousand oysters or 5 thousand clams per leased acre from 72 to 48 months.
DNREC Fisheries Section Administrator John Clark said feasibility studies show that 100 thousand oysters is the minimum amount to make an acre break even, but feedback suggests that number is problematic.
“All the gear you'd need to raise 100 thousand, it was setting the bar too high to new entrants into the aquaculture,” Clark said. “So they asked us that instead of having it [be] 100 thousand you had to plant by the end of three years, that you make it 50 thousand oysters you have to plant by the end of three years.”
Clark said Delaware doesn’t have enough space suitable for aquaculture to allow people to lease area and not use it.
Another amendment said in-state hatcheries that regularly meet disease control qualifications won’t have to seek import permits.
“It's not that they're not testing,” Clark said. “It's just we're not going to require them to test as intensely as we do from out of state because we're working with them. They're going to have what are known as biosecurity protocols.”
Clark said any oysters imported into the state must have standard tests done. The University of Delaware has a hatchery using Delaware Bay waters. Once in-state hatcheries like UD’s have practices in place to prevent disease, Clark said DNREC doesn’t have to test every batch.
Clark added monitoring in-state hatcheries is fairly simple, as DNREC staff can drive down and check that protocols are followed.
This measure does not apply to out-of-state hatcheries, which still need to go through the testing and permitting process.
