Please clear this up

[JOHN M.O.T.]

In a discussion with someone who has a commercial shellfish license in Jersey. They got it to only harvest more than the rec. license. If you're not selling can you keep as many as you want for personal consumpsion? I say no.

[JOHN M.O.T.]

I spoke to a person from the DEP. They told me if I have a commercial license and I'm not selling I can harvest as many as I want. I stand corrected.

[Mguy1]

Good for them but...I can't imagine needing more than 150 clams per person per day.

[samiam]

I bought the comm shellfish license several years ago with no intention to sell. My logic was that I wanted to be able to harvest enough to share with family & friends, take some different kinds of shellfish for bait use, and also not worry about keeping a strictly accurate count. I never took advantage of that leeway, but that is another issue.

[JOHN M.O.T.]

Thanks for the replies. It's being responsible and not waisting the resources. I hate finding fish or clams in the parking areas. Not bait clams either.
I'm all for feeding you families. Just hate to see the waste.

[samiam]

I just posted elsewhere that I have done this. Several years ago, I wanted more than the rec limit of clams to serve at parties, and I didn't want to drive around South Jersey in Summer trying to find what I thought were suitable examples. Are you assuming that just because someone is permitted to harvest an unlimited quantity, they will take more than they can use, and throw the excess away? I never did anything of the kind, and I don't get the impression that the other people who replied here would do that, either. However, I don't doubt that has happened. That's inevitable when anything is done on a "honor" system. A depressing number of people don't possess any... Just out of curiosity, how would you see enforcement happening if there was such a restriction?

SAM