DEM to open new shellfishing area in Mount Hope Bay on Sunday, May 28

A section of Mount Hope Bay off the coast of Warren will reopen for shellfishing for the first time in decades, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Agency announced Thursday.

Harvesters will get an extra 515 acres of the bay to dig for quahogs and other shellfish starting at sunrise on May 28. The northwest corner of the Bay off Warren’s Touisset Point has been off-limits for shellfishing for decades due to poor water quality, but is now able to reopen thanks to improvements in wastewater treatment and combined sewer overflow, according to DEM. 

“From the opening of the Providence River to quahogging for the first time in 75 years in 2021, to the opening of new shellfishing grounds in Greenwich Bay in 2022, to the Mount Hope Bay reopening in 2023, the trend toward better water quality in Narragansett Bay is clear,” DEM Director Terry Gray said in a statement. 

“The improvements propelling this progress — replacing and phasing out outmoded cesspools that pollute groundwater, upgrading wastewater treatment facilities, and improving collection and treatment of stormwater — have not come cheaply, but they’ve been worth every penny because the bay is cleaner and healthier than it’s been in generations.”

As a conditionally approved shellfishing area, the new section of shellfishing in the bay is subject to temporary closures after heavy rain, wastewater treatment plant bypasses or seasonal schedule changes, according to DEM.

Another, 5-acre section of Nanaquaket Pond in Tiverton is also opening to shellfish harvesting starting at sunrise Saturday. The area has also been closed for harvesting due to a nearby seafood processing facility that could have created bacteria contamination, but is now able to open because the business has shuttered, DEM said. 

Meanwhile, DEM is also closing several other shellfish harvesting areas for the season because of potential declines in water quality due to marinas and mooring fields. Seasonal closures begin at sunrise Saturday at Bristol Harbor, the Dutch Harbor area in Jamestown, Fishing Cove in Wickford Harbor, Great Salt and Trims ponds on Block Island, Potter Cove on Prudence Island and the Sakonnet Harbor in Little Compton.

More information about seasonal shellfish closures and a map of open areas is available at DEM’s website.