Shellfisherman to search new spot for oysters, clams - Greenwich Time

• After more than 200 years of sifting Long Island Sound's sandy floor from canoes, skipjacks, steam engines and trawlers, shellfishermen say they've figured out which areas yield the meatiest, most abundant oyster and clam crops. The prized underwater beds are privately owned or leased from the state Department of Agriculture, and are sold from generation to generation of shellfisherman. So its rare for a shellfisherman to do what Greenwich's Jardar Nygaard is proposing--seek to farm unclaimed and unproven acreage.
• "The leases are automatically renewed at the choice of the lessee, if he meets the terms and conditions. That's why we only get about 10 new applications a year," Carey said."You'd think that shellfishermen, between (the year) 1800 and last year, have pretty much picked out the best areas."
• But the Sound has a way of surprising shellfishermen who think they've mastered the practice, said Ed Stilwagen, who works about 3,000 acres in the Sound as owner of Byram River-based Atlantic Clam Farms. "If you're around a while you find out where the good spots are, but it changes based on the current and other conditions. It's not a totally consistent thing at all," Stilwagen said. "There's a lot of luck involved. Sometimes it's better to be in some areas than others, for reasons we don't even know about."
• Nygaard, who already leases 50 acres in Greenwich and 220 in Westport, believes that eddying at high and low tides could help seeds take hold in the beds and yield shellfish in the proposed sites. "Also, during storms, it could create large amounts of shell deposit, which is also a good environment," Nygaard said.
• "Historically we know which grounds are the best," said Miklovich, whose business farms about 10,000 acres in the Sound and whose family has been in shellfishing since 1875. "Just history from the old-timers, that's what it's about. Over the years, everything has been tried. All these grounds have been tried before." For Nygaard, who has long been interested in aquaculture and whose family went into salmon farming years ago, trying to find a good shellfishing crop where no one has before may offer its own rewards. (excerpts from Michael Dinan, Greenwich Time)