“It’s a strong catch,” Mike McGiveney says of the nearly 2 million quahogs harvested in the first seven days that the lower Providence River area has been open to commercial shellfishermen this year.

The area was open May 6, June 3, 17 and 19 and July 8, 10 and 15.  During those days a total of 260 different licensees worked the area according to DEM. This is the fourth year the area stretching from a line between Conimicut Point in Warwick to Nayatt Point in Barrington as far upriver to Gaspee Point across to Bullock’s Point Light offshore East Providence has been open since being closed for more than 70 years.

The rich quahog beds have proven the salvation for quahoggers who have experienced diminishing catches from beds in Narragansett Bay. The area spanning more than 1,000 acres is strictly regulated. It opens at 8 a.m. for three hours for a maximum of 22 days a year on a set schedule. However, the area is closed following rainstorms recording a half inch or more of rain. The season comes to a close at the end of October. Last year, McGiveney points out, was one of the wettest, prompting numerous closures and rescheduling to fit in the allotted days.

McGiveney, President of the Rhode Island Shellfisherman’s Association, doesn’t know what to make of this year, but given the recent findings of the special legislative commission chaired by Warwick Rep. Joseph Solomon Jr., of which he was a member, McGiveney is anxious to increase quahog transfer and seeding programs.

Also a commission member, Mark Johnson, of Warwick Neck and founder of the Rhode Island Shellfishermen’s Alliance, is happy to have the plentiful beds open but he has concerns unless the Department of Environmental Management acts.

After working the area Monday, he said, the catch is declining. He noted that last year 2.6 million pounds of quahogs were harvested from Narragansett Bay with 60 percent of the total coming from 21 days of shellfishing in the Providence River stretch.  With the exception of a few isolated spots, he called the once fertile Greenwich Bay a “mud flat.” He said sections of Narragansett Bay that once saw as many as a hundred quahoggers a day are now supporting 30 “on a good day” but more commonly ten or less.

“I don’t know why DEM doesn’t listen to us,” he said.  The alliance advocates an increase in the release of nitrogen into bay waters from wastewater treatment plants and the creation of spawning beds seeded with transplants throughout the bay.

To Johnson and McGiveney’s disappointment, the commission did not recommend at this time an increase in the release of nitrogen by wastewater treatment plants as advocated by scientists testifying on behalf of the shellfishermen. Nitrogen is critical to the growth of phytoplankton, a food source for shellfish and other filter feeders.

With a team from URI, Johnson gathered water samples from multiple locations in the bay last spring to measure the quantity of quahog larvae and phytoplankton. Funding for the analysis is not available and Johnson questions when the results will become available.

Nitrogen reduction

In response to a massive fish kill in Greenwich Bay, the General Assembly enacted legislation in 2004 requiring DEM to reduce nitrogen loading in the upper bay from wastewater treatment plants by 50 percent.  

Johnson argues a combination of a neap tide that reduces the exchange of water, bluefish chasing large schools of menhaden into the bay and warm days that further deplete the oxygen in the water was largely responsible for the fish kill.

While regulations requiring wastewater treatment plants remove greater quantities of pollutants have resulted in a far cleaner bay, the association maintains regulations have overly reduced nutrients. The commission found the average nitrogen load between 2020 and 2022 from the 11 treatment plants feeding into the bay from May to October decreased 53 percent from the 2012 loading and 78 percent from the 2004 loading.

Quahog landings precipitously declined from 902,988 pounds in 2012 to 397,442 pounds harvested in 2022, the report reads.

The report discounts climate change resulting in warmer water as significantly impacting quahog catches, concluding the reduction in quahogs “may be closely correlated to the substantial and contemporaneous reduction in wastewater nitrogen loads.”

McGiveney, who worked in the Providence River with an estimated 100 other quahoggers on July 8, calls the area “a very impressive set.”

Warwick quahogger Jody King, who has been off the water for eight weeks following a medical procedure, worked an area off Bullock’s Cove light on Monday.  He was happy with his catch, although he expects to pay the price with some back and muscle kinks. He harvested 2,280 little necks, 280 tops and 37 pounds of quahogs.

More transplanting advocated

McGiveney identifies the issue as “not a lack of clams, but the areas we can’t get to.” What he is referring to are stretches of the river north of Gaspee Point. But he is not necessarily advocating opening the area to harvesting, but rather to use as a storehouse for transplants.

The commission recommends development of a long-term restoration plan for the Upper Bay with “reduced fishing effort in selected areas of the Bay to promote an increase in quahog density and an increase in quahog reproductive potential.”

Also suggested is a study of the feasibility of building and operating a large-scale shellfishing hatchery, identifying and protecting areas that would serve as spawning sanctuaries and studies to potentially develop a plan to modify the discharge permits of the three largest wastewater plants on the Providence and Seekonk Rivers to increase nutrients to support winter-string phytoplankton blooms in the Bay.

More immediately McGiveney is calling on the state to “vigorously fund” transplanting so that during the winter when the Providence River is closed to shellfishing, quahoggers can still harvest and little necks can be enjoyed at home and in restaurants.

House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi said Monday he plans to meet with Johnson, Commission Chair Rep. Joseph Solomon Jr. and other commission members next month. He said no legislation was submitted during the last legislative session to fund a transplant program and that unless DEM has a reserve funds, he knows of no money for a program.

But there is a program although it is a shadow of what was done in the past.

“Currently, the shellfish transplant program conducts 1-2 transplants per year, the next transplants are planned for Spring 2025. The shellfish transplant program is currently funded through penalties collected as part of Rhode Island Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (RIPDES) Notices of Violation (NOVs) and there is no dedicated funding source or amount at this time,” Administrative Officer, Public Affairs Erica Meier writes in an email.

In addition to transplanting, creation of spawning sanctuaries, increase in nitrogen, Johnson suggests a reduction in the six-bushel daily limit when harvesting the Providence River to three bushels. He said this would prolong the resource while acting as a stabilizing factor on prices that dip on days when the area is open and quahogs flood the market.