Shellfish beds in the Navesink and Shrewsbury rivers are open effective at sunrise today.
Bob Martin, the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, signed an order Friday after he said water monitoring and tissue sampling found no issue with contamination from bacteria or viruses following superstorm Sandy.
“So much of our coastline and our fishing industry took significant hits from the storm, so we are pleased to reopen these additional shellfish beds and get people back to work in areas affected by the storm,” Martin said. “Tests also show that our ocean water quality is excellent.”
The DEP closed all New Jersey shellfish beds to commercial and recreational harvesting on October 29 in preparation for Hurricane Sandy, due to concerns over degradation of coastal water quality from the storm.
Beds in the Raritan Bay-Sandy Hook area remain closed until further notice due to wet weather and dry weather bypasses of temporary pumps at the Sayreville pump station in the Raritan River.
For more information, including a map of reopened shellfish beds, visit http://www.nj.gov/dep/wms/bmw/sandy.html.
