On April 28, a survey committee selected George F. Young Inc. to proceed with surveying and marking the Dog Island and Corrigan’s Reef Shellfish Aquaculture Lease Expansions in the vicinity of Cedar Key, Levy County. It is anticipated that the field work will be completed by mid-June. The master survey plats must then be approved by the Department of Environmental Protection, Division of State Lands and recorded at the Levy County Clerk of Court, before legal descriptions of individual parcels are provided to new leaseholders. Next, lease instruments (contracts) must be executed by the leaseholders and DACS Division of Aquaculture prior to beginning culture activities on the lease.
On March 18, the Governor and Cabinet acting in their capacity as the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund approved sixty-six new aquaculture leases in Levy County along with the conversion of an in-perpetuity shellfish lease to an aquaculture lease. This represents an additional 135 acres of sovereign submerged lands dedicated to clam farming in the area.
