Letters

Conscience Point Shellfish has received tremendous local support with regards to the Southampton History Museum trying to evict the hatchery from Conscience Point. Along the way, however, there have been a few questions about the hatchery operations, which we would like to clarify.

1. It has been mentioned that we no longer donate oysters and clams to the Town Trustees. Actually, we still do this. We donate thousands of oysters and clams to the Trustees to put into the bays each year to help clean the water. This year, we donated about 70,000. To date, since the hatchery began in 2013, almost 2 million have been donated to the Trustees.

2. It has been mentioned that we only sell oysters now, as if we were a commercial operation. In actuality, we donated 41 percent of our oyster and clam production to the town in 2024. The 59 percent of full-size oyster and seed sales helped pay for the cost of running the hatchery.

3. It has been mentioned that most of our revenue comes from oyster sales. This is not correct. Our total revenue in 2024 was $85,000. Donations and grants made up 70 percent of this revenue. Renting dock space made up another 4 percent. The remaining 26 percent was from selling full-size oysters and oyster seed.

4. It was suggested that we could donate the money we earn from oyster sales to the museum. However, in 2023, we lost about $20,000. In 2024, we did not quite break even. We did not have any extra money to donate to the museum.

5. It has been suggested that the museum did not know about the hatchery’s grant application to the Community Preservation Fund to expand its operations. In fact, the museum was well aware of the grant, as it had to sign the grant application, since the land at the time was thought to be the museum’s. CPF approved the grant to provide water to the site, put in a bathroom and put in a septic system, all of which make up the majority of the grant funding.

Currently, the hatchery has no direct water supply. Instead, a neighbor has allowed the hatchery staff to hook up a garden hose daily to their house to provide water to clean the tanks. The staff also needs to knock on a neighbor’s door if they need to use a bathroom, as the town’s facilities are closed November to April.

I hope this clarifies some of the questions about how we operate. Anyone is welcome to ask us for further clarifications, or with any other questions you may have, by emailing us at info@cpshellfish.org.

Mark Matthews

President

Conscience Point Shellfish Hatchery

North Sea