Flickr user Tim Brown Architects
Oyster beds near Penn Center.

Thanks to good signs in yearly water quality data, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control will open more than 5,000 additional acres of shellfish beds for harvesting during the upcoming shellfish season.

In Beaufort County 448 more acres will be open on Brickyard Creek that runs near the Marine Corps Air Station.

"These new shellfish beds will be classified as approved when the recreational harvesting season begins on October 1," said Mike Pearson, manager of DHEC's shellfish sanitation program. "Approved areas are normally open for the harvesting of clams and oysters for human consumption. Approved areas must not exceed an established water quality standard."

Other newly approved harvesting areas include:

Charleston County: 883 acres along Intracoastal Waterway near McClellanville; 1412 acres of Captain Sam's Inlet.
Georgetown County: 1200 acres between Muddy Bay and North Inlet; 1200 acres of North Santee Bay
Horry County: 274 acres near Hog Inlet

For information on clam and oyster harvesting in Beaufort County, call DHEC's Region 8 EQC office at (843) 846-1030. 

For information on clam and oyster harvesting in Horry and Georgetown counties, call DHEC's Region 6 Environmental Quality Control office at (843) 238-4378, in the Charleston area, call DHEC's Region 7 EQC office at (843) 953-0160.