Ice and sub-zero temperatures may keep harvesters from digging up clams this time of year, but Woolwich Shellfish Committee members are actively engaged in a heated dispute over conservation efforts and control of the flats. 

Committee chairman Dan Harrington and member Timothy LaRochelle responded at length to allegations of over-harvesting and a lack of oversight by resident and fellow committee member Andy Cromwell during the January 23 Board of Selectmen meeting.

Harrington has indicated the clam population is not as high as harvesters would like it to be, but he said it has improved significantly over the past few years after many hours of conservation work. He and LaRochelle fired back at Cromwell for statements Cromwell made in a January 7 letter to selectmen.

In his letter Cromwell stated, “In the past several years there has been a severe occurrence of over-harvesting, lack of oversight and environmental issues that have reduced the population of harvestable shellfish.”

In 2008, the flats along coastal Woolwich, in Brookings Bay and Montsweag Bay, were closed due to pollution from leaching septic systems and other sources, but the Maine Department of Marine Resources opened up some of these areas a couple of years later. 

According to LaRochelle, clam diggers saw an increase in landings from 2010 to 2012. He showed selectmen photos of clams he dug up at various creeks along the shore and in Brookings Bay. Many were two inches or just under two inches in length. 

“The flats look better every time I walk or got to dig on them,” LaRochelle said. “The clams we re-seeded in October 2010 are just at legal size.”

According to LaRochelle, he and Harrington each invested between 80 and 90 hours to re-seeding flats, 45 hours to taking water samples along shore and each spent $250 in fuel as they did this conservation work over the past two and one-half years. They also attended an eight-hour DMR water testing certification class last May, he said. 

Committee members collaborated with members of Bath-based nonprofit environmental organization Kennebec Estuary Land Trust to conduct water tests, address pollution problems and to re-open mud flats for shellfish harvesting. While they seek to conserve the flats for future shellfish harvests, a disagreement about control has divided Shellfish Committee members. 

LaRochelle and Harrington expressed their ire over Cromwell's statement recorded in meeting minutes that Harrington no longer serve as chairman of the committee. 

“It now seems in my opinion … that his (Cromwell's) intentions are to close flats and control when they can be harvested,”Harrington said, also mentioning a concern that Cromwell wants to recruit new committee members to tilt overall decision-making through majority votes. 

Harrington referenced a previous agreement his committee had with the town of Wiscasset that went sour following conflicts between part-time and career shellfish harvesters. He added, “If anyone in this town truly wants to assist this industry, they could help to find more access for harvesters along our towns shore front.”

Cromwell denied wanting to unseat Harrington from his position as chairman, but later said he would like to see another member take that role. “I'm not looking for anyone's job,” he said. “But I am looking to help the resource.” Cromwell said he wanted the committee to consider other conservation methods, such as how to deal with mud snails, a reported predator of juvenile clams. 

He also said he was not invited along when Harrington and LaRochelle planted juvenile clams. “I know why I'm not being invited to these things is because you guys are planting seed where you want them and you don't want anyone else to know.” 

LaRochelle later said they could not wait for Cromwell when they were planting clam seed, as they were timing their project in concert with the tides.

In his letter to selectmen, Cromwell said the committee is considering a collaborative study of the flats with Bates College and state biologists this coming spring, the sort of activity Harrington and LaRochelle had criticized in their own statements to selectmen.

“I think what you've got going here needs to be settled at a shellfish committee meeting,” Selectmen Chairman David King said.

Selectmen and Shellfish Committee members agreed to hold a workshop session about these issues, which is scheduled to take place at the town office, starting at 6 p.m. on February 5.