Restoring Clams to the Great South Bay

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2009

Concerns regarding the dwindling hard clam population in the Great South Bay have sparked one of the most ambitious shellfish restoration efforts in the nation. Suffolk County, in collaboration with the Nature Conservancy, was on a mission to “make the South Bay great again” by re-seeding hard clams in hopes that the clam population would return to its historic abundance. In 2006 the Suffolk County Government granted the Nature Conservancy $1 million toward hard clam restoration efforts in the Great South Bay. Since the initial announcement of the 2006 contract, approximately 2 million clams were added to the Bay, bringing the total number of adult hard clams stocked since 2004 up to more than 3 million. This investment by Suffolk County has already resulted in clear evidence of restoring hard clams to the Great South Bay.