Shellfishing ‘1 inch from extinction’ The shellfishing industry that is trying to exist in the Raritan and Sandy Hook bays is about one inch from extinction for all the wrong reasons. During good times, the $7 million payroll it generates pays for a lot of mortgages, car payments and kids. Poor water quality, the worst winter in memory, and the devastation of 9/11 has left the industry on its knees. The knockout punch was delivered by a multimillion-gallon sewer spill operated by the Middlesex County Utilities Authority (MCUA). The denial of harm through a web of demanded documentation has been the response of the MCUA to date. How many of the working public would be able to produce receipts from the year 2000? They’re probably filed alongside the tax returns from 2000, 2001 and 2002 that are also being requested. When General Electric settled its damage claim with the fishermen on the Hudson, no such dog-and-pony show was required. It sounds like the food chain of lawyers being paid by the hour for the MCUA are working overtime. It is obvious the fishermen impacted by the massive spill are being raped for a second time by our famed legal system. If there are no victims, there never was a crime — there never was a multimillion-gallon sewer spill. Good strategy ... poor morals, again at taxpayers’ expense. There never was a sewer spill that devastated 80 families of taxpayers called "fishermen." Dennis J. Kavanaugh Sandy Hook Watermen’s Alliance Keyport