Wiscasset’s shellfish program should fund itself, members of the town’s budget committee maintained on May 15. The committee voted 6-0 to recommend voters approve $2,700 for this year’s shellfish conservation budget. The shellfish committee has asked for $10,630.

The budget committee’s position is consistent with members’ comments in recent budget talks. At Thursday’s meeting, the panel settled on its recommendations for the May 31 town meeting.

The point of recommending the smaller amount for shellfish conservation is to keep property tax money out of the program, budget committee members said.

Additional clam-digging licenses and higher prices for them would bring in more money for the program, Budget Committee Chairman Bob Blagden said.

Either of those options poses its own issue the shellfish committee would need to take into account, longtime committee member Dick Forrest said in a telephone interview May 16.

More licenses would do more to deplete Wiscasset’s fairly low clam population; and raising license costs might price-out some diggers, Forrest said.

When he and Wiscasset Shellfish Warden Jon Hentz spoke to the budget committee and selectmen on May 13, they told the panels that funding cuts in either seed clams or enforcement of clam-digging rules would impact the harvest and could lead to an end to the program.

Without enforcement, clam-diggers from towns with closed flats would quickly take most of Wiscasset’s harvest, Hentz said.

Budget Committee member John Merry on May 15 expressed concern about that prospect, after years of the town investing in the program.

“Well, you could still get a warden, he might work fewer hours, and keep the ordinance alive,” fellow member Ray Soule said.

In Friday’s interview, Forrest said the budget committee’s idea of fewer hours for the warden might be an option.

“We would have to determine what effective enforcement is ... We could maybe be creative, and he could maybe be on-call.”

In budget talks, selectmen have supported the shellfish committee’s entire request; the board was set to finalize the town meeting warrant on Tuesday, May 20.