OLR Report 2014-R-0120 answers the question: What is the minimum size required for oysters to be legally harvested in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia?
Connecticut law currently requires all oysters harvested in state waters to be at least three inches long. This restriction is not unusual in comparison to the other states surveyed. Generally, harvest size restrictions vary based on the source of the oyster (i.e., aquaculture versus natural beds) and the purpose of the harvest (i.e., marketing for food versus seed oysters for aquaculture). Oysters harvested from a natural bed must be a minimum of three inches in seven of the nine states surveyed. In the two states outside this range, New Jersey requires oysters to be a minimum of two-and-a-half inches and Delaware requires a minimum of two-and-three-quarters inches. For aquaculture, state standards range from no minimum size to two-and-a-half inches.
Generally, oysters produced through aquaculture are either not subject to size restrictions or are obligated to meet a size limit that is a half inch to an inch smaller than the restrictions for natural beds. Many states allow holders of aquaculture permits to harvest undersized oysters, sometimes from the state’s natural beds, for the purpose of seeding farmed oyster beds or selling the undersized oysters to other permittees for seeding their farmed oyster beds.
For more information, read the full report.
