PROVIDENCE – The Department of Environmental Management (DEM) is announcing that effective at noon today and until noon on January 7, two areas of Point Judith Pond will be closed to shellfishing due to the strong storm that brought 1.4 inches of rainfall to the area. These areas are shown on the map and described below:
Area 1: All waters of Pt. Judith Pond and Wheatfield Cove north of a line from the light pole located on Turner Point (so called "Senior Hill") on Camp Fuller Road on the western shore of Pt. Judith Pond in South Kingstown to the extension of the CRMC R.O.W. C-12 near the intersection of Isle Point Rd. and Cedar Island Rd. on Harbour Island in Narragansett and south of line from the DEM range marker located in Smelt Brook Cove to the DEM range marker located at the northwest tip of Pine Tree Point.
Area 2: All waters of Pt. Judith Pond east of Ram Island located south and east of a line from the extension of Flintstone Road on Harbour Island in Narragansett that follows the old submerged road to Ram Island and south of a line from the northern most corner of the rip-rap bulkhead at the Briggs Farm Improvement Assoc. parking lot to the northeast landward end of CRMC dock # 1690 on the opposite shore and north of a line from the most southeast point of Ram Island to the end of Indian Rock Farm Road at the northern tip of Locke Point in Narragansett including Walcott Cove.
DEM is enacting the closure because water samples collected after previous rain storms indicate that bacteria levels will be unsafe following the rains that fell Sunday night through Monday night.
Shellfish commercially harvested from Potter Pond and the open areas of Point Judith Pond should be identified as harvested from tagging area 6PSW until further notice.
For information regarding where you can harvest shellfish, please refer to the interactive Shellfish Map on the Shellfishing page on DEM's website. For more information about shellfish classifications and the legal descriptions of all shellfish closures, visit www.dem.ri.gov. DEM maintains a 24-hour shellfishing hotline, providing information on emergency and conditional area shellfish closures: 401-222-2900.
DEM's Office of Water Resources has established a listserv to email notifications of Conditional Area and emergency shellfish harvesting closures (e.g. harmful alga blooms, sewage releases, etc.). To receive these notifications, please click here RishellfishOWR-subscribe@listserve.ri.gov. You will receive a confirmation email that you need to accept to complete the sign up (check spam or junk mailbox).
Follow DEM on Twitter (@RhodeIslandDEM) or Facebook and follow RIDOH on Twitter (@RIHEALTH) or Facebook for information and timely updates.