Conscience Point Hatchery Marks 10th Year of Providing Southampton With Shellfish

On a day like Saturday, when the entire East End was drenched by on-again, off-again showers, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to be out on the water.

But to a handful of die-hard shellfish enthusiasts who volunteer at the Conscience Point Shellfish Hatchery in North Sea, there was no place they would rather be.

“It’s all shellfish, all the time,” said John “Barley” Dunne, a Noyac resident and member of the Conscience Point board of directors, whose day job happens to be running the East Hampton Town Shellfish Hatchery in Montauk.

Dunne, President Mark Matthews and a handful of other board members had gathered at the hatchery’s tiny 10-foot-by-20-foot headquarters, just north of the town’s Conscience Point Marina, to talk about the organization’s 10th anniversary.

Because Southampton Town does not have its own hatchery, Conscience Point fills an important role in providing oyster spat, seed clams, and bay scallops to the Southampton Town Trustees for seeding in local waterways. Chuck Leanza, the hatchery’s manager, said about 2 million oyster spat and about 500,000 hard clams pass through the hatchery each year.

When they are newly hatched, the shellfish, which are barely visible, are placed in tanks where they swim freely. Soon, they develop shells and are transferred to set tanks, where they are fed a steady diet of algae cultivated by the hatchery. Once the shellfish grow large enough to outpace the hatchery’s ability to feed them, they are transferred to floating baskets in the bay, where they are provided with an unlimited supply of water and the nutrients it contains. After more growth, the oysters are transferred once again, this time into bags that are placed in floating cages, where they continue to feed until they are ready to be marketed or donated for seeding elsewhere in town.

Shellfish are important to the bay’s ecosystem because when they feed, they filter out nitrogen and other nutrients in the water that could lead to harmful algal blooms, said board member Howard Reisman, a retired marine sciences professor at Southampton College.

One full grown oyster can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day, which, when multiplied by a couple million of them, starts to add up.

Some of the shellfish grown by the hatchery have been seeded right in North Sea Harbor, but others have been placed in Sag Harbor, Cold Spring Pond, Shinnecock Bay, Bullhead Bay, Reeves Bay, and Moriches Bay.

Matthews said there were any number of reasons why people want to volunteer at the hatchery. “Some people just like any excuse to be on the water,” he said. “Other people really care about cleaning the water, and this is a proven way of doing that. And some people want to make a livelihood out of it.”

The hatchery building sits on land that is leased for a nominal fee from the Southampton History Museum, and Matthews said the organization has helped the hatchery promote the town’s maritime history through its sustainable aquaculture program. “Early on, in a sense, they were our biggest supporter because they gave us a place where we could tie up boats and have access to the water,” he said.

The hatchery receives an occasional stipend from Southampton Town, but it largely depends on grants and gifts from the community. Another source of income is from its Community Supported Aquaculture program, which sells oysters to the public.

Options range from $85 for 50 oysters to $360 for 300 oysters. Customers receive an insulated shopping bag to help keep their shellfish cold. The hatchery also sells caps for $25 and oyster shucking knives and protective gloves for $15 each.

Information about the hatchery can be found online at ConsciencePointShellfish.org or by calling 631-314-2774 or sending an email to info@cpshellfish.org.