Conn. oyster industry could benefit from increases in price, demand in wake of Gulf spill

Conn. oyster industry could benefit from Gulf woes

HARTFORD, Conn. — Connecticut’s oyster industry could benefit from the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tom Kehoe, a Long Island wholesaler and president of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, says a lack of supply from the Gulf has led to increase in prices for all oysters, including those harvested in Long Island Sound. He says prices could double in the next year.

Gulf fisheries account for about 60 percent of the oysters eaten in the United States.

Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake Bay are the other large oyster producers on the East Coast. But they produce just of fraction of the oysters grown in the Gulf and in Washington state.

There are about 40 companies involved in shellfishing in Connecticut.