Shellfish Ban In Part Of The Delaware Bay After Sewage Spill

by KYW's David Madden

DOVER, DE (CBS) -- There's a three-week ban on shellfishing in parts of the Delaware Bay.

Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control issued the ban earlier this week after an incident in Kent County, according to spokesman Michael Globetti.

"We had a sewage spill from a county sewage line that went through a pump station, backed up and the spill flowed into the St. Jones River," Globetti told KYW Newsradio.

Hundreds of thousands of gallons of untreated wastewater ended up in the Delaware Bay near the town of Bowers before the situation was contained.

"The ban on shellfishing in Delaware Bay extends 21 days beyond the halt of the sewage spill," Globetti added. "It was stopped as of Tuesday evening."

That would take the ban to March First.

It covers harvests of clams, oysters, and mussels, not crabs or conchs, and New Jersey waters are not included.

Then again, in the middle of winter there is little-to-no interest in fishing for oysters in the first place. But the ban is there as a precaution.