CAPE MAY – The farming of oysters and clams at the New Jersey Shore, helped by new technologies, has struck deep enough roots for experts and state officials to turn their focus to growing and marketing shellfish aquaculture, including a push to open more coastal waters to the industry.
In a new report, "Opportunities and Potential for Aquaculture in New Jersey," the state Department of Agriculture, usually preoccupied with promoting land-based crops, contends that the $6 million aquaculture shellfish industry – a small part of the $178 million state seafood industry – has the potential to grow much bigger.
The plan, the first of its kind in nearly 20 years, is the work of the agency's Aquaculture Advisory Council.
Among its recommendations: tax incentives to increase private investment in the industry and loosening regulations to open up more underwater areas in the Delaware and Barnegat Bays and along the Atlantic coast for cultivating shellfish.
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