PORTSMOUTH, R.I. (WJAR) — A stretch of shoreline in Portsmouth will reopen to shell fishing for the first time since 1975 after meeting water testing standards, but longtime quahoggers are skeptical whether it will correct the course of Rhode Island’s embattled shell fishing industry.
Mark Johnson has been a proud quahogger since he was 11-years-old, first making a few extra bucks picking them up along the shore before eventually saving up enough money to buy his own boat.
“There are those people who don’t want to sit in an office,” Johnson said, gesturing towards the water at Rocky Point State Park in Warwick. “Do you like my office?”…