With fishing pressure on the Westport River’s east branch on the rise, the select board this week approved a new commercial oyster license and is reducing the daily allowable harvest by 33 percent.

The shellfish advisory board’s Ronald Savaria requested the new oyster-specific license and a corresponding change to remove oysters from the town’s existing shellfish license, and it was approved unanimously by the select board. The new license will cost $200, reduces the daily catch limit from three baskets to two, and includes further restrictions to keep the east branch’s oyster population healthy.

Marine services director Chris Leonard said there is clearly a need to keep oystering in check, given the numbers. In December 2022, the town logged 312 baskets of oysters harvested; by last December, that had increased to 812.

“There is a big demand for oystering, specifically in the area of Hixbridge and north of Hixbridge, commercially,” he said. “This is an area that is supported naturally. We have purchased oysters and planted them up there, but we don’t do it every single year and we let Mother Nature take its course. We just feel we would rather be on the side of conservation as opposed to take it all and then deal with it.”

One other change in regulations deals with how oysters are harvested. Going forward, wading for oysters in area BB4.15 north of the bridge is prohibited:

“We do not want wading,” Leonard said. “We do have two ancient oyster reefs that run parallel with the channel. The bottom is rather rocky but we also have a lot of mud and muck. If you are out of your boat and tromping around, you are just pushing oysters in good locations into the mud, to the point of no return.”

Wading is allowed in all other areas of the river open to shellfishing.