Stand on the Portsmouth shoreline just south of the Mount Hope Bridge this weekend and the bay looks the same as it always has. The water moves the same way. The tidal flats are there. What changed, as of Saturday, May 23, is that you can now legally wade in with a rake and take something home.
A 462-acre section of Narragansett Bay along that stretch of Portsmouth coastline reopened to shellfishing on May 23, 2026, upgraded by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management from prohibited to approved for harvest. The last time this area was open was 1975. If you've lived in Portsmouth your whole life, you have never been allowed to clam there.
Where, Exactly
The newly approved area runs along the Portsmouth shoreline just south of the Mount Hope Bridge. DEM's interactive shellfishing map at dem.ri.gov/shellfish shows the precise boundaries — worth bookmarking, because the written boundary descriptions govern, not the visual approximation on screen.
The 462 acres are now classified as approved, the same designation that allows commercial and recreational harvest elsewhere in the bay. For recreational harvesters who are Rhode Island residents, no license is required. You need a license only if you're a non-resident. The DEM regulation is clear on that point, and it matters for the Portsmouth families who want to bring their kids down to the flats this summer without paperwork.
What's down there after five decades of no harvest pressure is a reasonable question. The 2021 reopening of a 1,900-acre area in the Providence River after a similar wastewater investment has proven productive for harvesters, according to Bruce Eastman, secretary and treasurer of the Rhode Island Shellfisherman's Association. That reopening came after the Narragansett Bay Commission made comparable infrastructure investments upstream of Providence. The Portsmouth area follows the same pattern, just further north along the bay.
Why It Took 50 Years, and Why It Ended Now
The answer isn't local. Portsmouth didn't do anything different in 2026. The reason this area has been prohibited since 1975 is that the water quality around it consistently failed federal shellfish sanitation standards, driven largely by what happened upstream in Massachusetts.
The primary driver behind the change was a $200 million, multi-decade overhaul of Fall River's Wastewater Treatment Facility, according to David Borkman, DEM's shellfish water quality program supervisor. Fall River sits at the northern end of Mount Hope Bay, which flows into the eastern reaches of Narragansett Bay near the Mount Hope Bridge. Before the overhaul, heavy rainfalls would overwhelm the treatment plant, sending pollutants into the bay. The fix — a series of underground tunnels designed to capture and contain stormwater runoff during storm events — stopped that from happening.
DEM's water quality testing showed the Portsmouth area met federal standards for safe harvesting nearly a year before the May 23 announcement. The agency waits until Memorial Day weekend to announce changes to shellfishing classifications, a conservative policy that DEM views as appropriate given the public health implications. The timing coincided with the close of Rhode Island's 10th annual Quahog Week, which highlights the cultural and economic role of the quahog — the state's official clam — across the state's seafood industry.
DEM Director Terry Gray, announcing the reopening, pointed to the connection between upstream infrastructure investment and downstream harvest access: cleaner water in this part of the bay is the direct result of a decision made in Fall River, funded at a scale that no single coastal town could have managed independently.
The Same-Day Closure That Confuses People
Here is where it gets counterintuitive. On the same morning the Portsmouth area opened — May 23 — DEM also activated its annual seasonal shellfish closures across a separate set of areas. Those closures run until October 13 and apply to areas within or near marinas and mooring fields, where boat traffic during the summer months can degrade water quality.
The seasonal closure areas this year include Bristol Harbor, the Dutch Harbor area in Jamestown, Fishing Cove in Wickford Harbor, Great Salt Pond and Trims Pond on Block Island, Potter Cove on Prudence Island, and Sakonnet Harbor in Little Compton. Small marina closures also took effect at Fort Wetherill in Jamestown and the Kickemuit River in Warren.
The newly reopened Portsmouth area is not among them. Its upgrade from prohibited to approved is a permanent reclassification, not a seasonal window. The two announcements arriving on the same day have generated some confusion, but they are separate actions: one area gaining its first approved status in half a century, other areas entering their regular summer marina-adjacent closures.
If you are planning to harvest anywhere other than the new Portsmouth area this summer, check the current status before you go. Conditions can change. The DEM 24-hour shellfishing hotline is 401-222-2900. The interactive map at dem.ri.gov/shellfish shows current classifications. You can also subscribe to DEM's shellfish closure email list for direct notification when areas open or close in response to water quality events.
Before You Go
A few practical details worth having before the first trip out:
- Rhode Island residents harvest recreationally without a license. Non-residents over 12 need either a 14-day license ($11) or an annual license ($200). Both are available through DEM.
- The interactive map is the authoritative reference. The written boundary descriptions on the DEM site govern the legal limits, but the map gives you a working visual of where approved areas begin and end relative to landmarks like the Mount Hope Bridge.
- Minimum sizes and possession limits apply. Regulations are at dem.ri.gov/shellfish under the shellfish and regulations link. For quahogs specifically, the minimums are set by the state and enforced on both recreational and commercial harvesters.
- Water quality can shift after rainfall. The DEM hotline and email subscription service are the fastest way to know if an emergency or conditional closure has been activated following a storm event. The same infrastructure investment that cleaned up this area doesn't make it immune to temporary closures after significant rain.
The bigger read here is not about shellfishing regulations. It's about what it means that a section of Narragansett Bay shoreline in Portsmouth — one that has been off-limits longer than most residents have been alive — is producing clean enough water to harvest from again. The bay is improving, measurably and verifiably, because of sustained investment in the infrastructure that feeds into it. That's a 50-year story closing in Portsmouth's favor this summer.
Eric Kirton has spent his life on Aquidneck Island. If you have questions about Portsmouth's waterfront, coastal properties, or what changes like this mean for the neighborhoods along the bay, reach out directly to request a private consultation.
