It’s unclear if Anna Maria will clam up or embrace clamming.
But a new proposal to seed the shoreline with clams possibly sweetened the deal for the city.
Mayor Dan Murphy said Jan. 27 that the city received a new proposal earlier in the week from the Palmetto-based Gulf Shellfish Institute — a nonprofit that would oversee the clam-seeding project — but city commissioners did not consider the pitch since it was not included on the meeting agenda.
Agendas must be prepared and published at least a week before their corresponding meeting in Anna Maria. So the Jan. 24 proposal arrived too late for placement on the Jan. 27 agenda.
The city has earmarked $50,000 of the $740,432 it received from the U.S. American Rescue Plan to spend on addressing environmental issues such as red tide.
GSI, along with four partners, proposed in January using the money to seed 20,000 southern hard and Venus sunray clams and plant cultivated seagrass along the city’s northern shoreline on Tampa Bay and Bimini Bay.
Proponents say seeding filter feeders such as clams could improve water quality and marine resilience to red tide, a higher-than-normal concentration of naturally occurring algae, specifically Karenia brevis, which produces brevotoxins that can kill marine life and be harmful to humans.
Local restaurateur Ed Chiles, vice president of GSI, wrote a Jan. 7 email to Murphy, stating that if the city agreed to the project, the Chiles Group would announce a $50,000 matching challenge to increase funding to $150,000.
City commissioners agreed in January to defer a decision so they could hear from experts and, to that end, Commissioner Jonathan Crane invited Kevin Claridge, Mote Marine Laboratory associate vice president for sponsored research and coastal policy programs, to speak Jan. 27.
Claridge provided insight into Mote’s research on red tide mitigation, which is funded through the state, as well as six mitigation options he said would be more “favorable” than the clam-seeding project in Anna Maria.
Randy Edwards, a retired marine scientist who worked at Mote and resides in Anna Maria, also shared an opinion. He wrote a Jan. 17 email to Crane stating clams would be “unlikely to have much or any positive impact on protecting and conserving the bay.”
“First of all, 20,000 clams would filter an infinitesimally small volume of the bays,” Edwards wrote. “Their filtration effect would be so small, compared to the volume of water in the bays, to be totally insignificant and would have no meaningful positive impact.”
“Thus, $50,000 would likely be pouring money into a hole into which money has already been poured into with no meaningful results,” he added.
However, the Jan. 24 proposal could change the game.
The proposal includes 1 million-2 million southern hard clams — a 5,000%-10,000% increase over the originally proposed 20,000 clams — to seed at the same $50,000 price, according to public records received Jan. 27 by The Islander.
The proposal, prepared by the Diatom Initiative in Terra Ceia, one of GSI’s partners, does not include Venus sunray clams.
The proposal does not provide an explanation behind the increase in the number of clams for seeding and GSI executive president Stephen Hesterburg, who spoke Jan. 27 during public comment, also did not explain the increase.
Commissioners reached consensus to revisit the matter, as well as invite Edwards to speak.
The commission will meet next at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 10, at city hall, 10005 Gulf Drive. The meeting is open to the public, with masks recommended. Directions to attend via Zoom can be found online at cityofannamaria.com.