March 28, 2012 – The issue that recently brought everybody together was a recent proposal by the Southampton Town Trustees to severely limit the harvesting of razor clams, a thin clam species that resembles a barber’s straight razor. The clams are little known to most East End residents but are hugely popular fare on the dinner tables of Asian families in New York City and have become one of the baymen’s most valuable harvests.
The fishermen said the closure of the razor clam harvest for the better part of eight months would rob them of their most important markets. They pleaded with the Trustees to take a different tack if they want to rein in the harvest of the clams, saying a shorter closure and strict limits on the number of razor clams that a bayman could harvest in a day would be preferable. They also blasted the Trustees for having adopted the closure without consulting them first.
“In the past, when decisions were made, the Trustees would call a meeting—that didn’t happen here,” said Sam Rispoli, president of the Southampton Town Baymen’s Association. The Hampton Bays bayman said that the members of the organization had agreed that some closure of the razor clam harvest was warranted, but that the one the Trustees have imposed is too long.
Read the complete story from The Southampton News.