Fewer shellfish harvesting licenses will be available next year, but town officials have yet to decide how many will be cut, and from which license categories.

Marine Resources Committee members are waiting for results of a shellfish survey before they determine how many licenses to trim. Shellfish wardens Dan Devereaux and Paul Plummer, with help from the state Department of Marine Resources, are doing the survey.

“We’re working on our inventory right now, and we’ve still got probably onethird of the town flats to go,” Devereaux said. “We’ll get an idea of what the standing crop (of clams) turns out to be by mid-October.”

Committee members have to set the number of licenses ^no later than Feb. 10.

The reduction is due to several factors, including overall health of the region’s shellfish beds and the natural cycle of industry growth and contraction.

However, the most obvious reason at present is a declining juvenile clam population due to increasing predation from European green crabs.

According to the Town Clerk’s office, Brunswick issued 167 shellfish licenses in 2013:

— 52 resident commercial

— 6 non-resident commercial

— 10 resident student commercial

— 1 nonresident student commercial

— 89 resident recreational

— 9 nonresident recreational

Brunswick last cut its licenses in 2007.

However, most of the reductions at that time were due to attrition and didn’t have much commercial impact, Devereaux said.

With regard to the impending cuts, Devereau said they are inevitable, telling Marine Resources Committee members Wednesday that “the painting is on the wall.”

jtleonard@timesrecord.com