For the first time in a century, water quality has improved enough in areas of Boston Harbor to allow people to harvest clams, oysters and mussels.
“Boston Harbor was once too polluted for fishing due to the dumping of toxic sludge and untreated wastewater,” said Priscilla Brooks, who works on ocean conservation at the Conservation Law Foundation. “Doing the right thing now, even if it’s costly, delivers remarkable results later on — returns that the public can and will enjoy.”
Shellfish absorb contaminants attached to any algae or plankton they eat, and those contaminants then remain in the shellfish tissue, making them dangerous for human consumption. The state’s Division of Marine Fisheries announced last week that it had completed its analysis of the Outer Harbor and determined Winthrop, Hingham and Hull are safe for shellfishing. Now it’s up to the cities and towns to determine how harvesting will work in their waters.
Kurt Bornheim, Hull’s harbormaster and shellfish constable, said the necessary local regulations and processes could be in place for people to start harvesting in late 2026.
“The state’s given us the reclassification, but it’s up to us on how we want to manage it,” said Bornheim, who defers to what his town’s select board decides to do.
“It’ll be interesting to see how many residents actually want to go out in the flats and dig shellfish,” he added. “A lot of people want to do it, but then ... they find out how hard it is.”
Brooks said the Division of Marine Fisheries still has a long road ahead to convince people that shellfish are safe to eat.
“After so many decades of not being able to eat the shellfish, they’ll have to continue to work with the towns and the public to demonstrate that the shellfish is clean enough to harvest and eat,” Brooks said.
Even limited reopening of shellfish harvesting comes after decades of work and billions of dollars spent to clean up Boston Harbor. In 1983, the Conservation Law Foundation filed a lawsuit against the city of Boston and the commonwealth to stop sewage and toxic pollution that made the water so dirty it “defied description.”
Brooks celebrated the news as a major milestone.
“The opening of Outer Boston Harbor to shellfishing is yet another example of how far Boston Harbor has come. From one of the dirtiest in the country to a national jewel that belongs to everyone,” she said.
Shellfishing in Boston Harbor was first banned in 1925 after a national typhoid epidemic caused by the consumption of contaminated oysters.
Since then, the Massachusetts Fish and Game division allowed only specially licensed harvesters to access certain shellfish beds. But even at those sites, any shellfish harvested still need to go through a process known as depuration to make them safe to eat.
Now, though, that purification process isn’t necessary. Chrissy Petitpas with the State Division of Marine Fisheries said that reflects how clean the harbor has become.
“It’s a great thing for the community. It’s a great thing for Massachusetts — because not all areas of the state are seeing a positive trend,” she said. “This just represents the final phase of the Boston Harbor cleanup, which we collectively as citizens invested so much effort in over many years and it has proven to be successful,” Petitpas said.
Bornheim in Hull also warns there will still be times when it won’t be safe for people to go out and harvest shellfish, like after sewage overflows contaminate the water.
Hannah Reale contributed reporting.
