The waters of the coves of Greenwich Bay are closed to shellfishing, but are thick with quahogs. In fact, the absence of harvesting is the reason that clam populations are so dense in the coves. In order to make these clams safe for harvesting, a transplant operation is carried out in May. The quahogs are dug up, removed from the closed waters, and released into cleaner waters, where they sink to the bottom and dig themselves in. By the time the winter harvest season begins, early the following year, the clams have had time to flush pollutants from their systems, and are safe for harvest and consumption.

The transplant operation begins when shellfishermen dig up and bag clams in Greenwich Cove. The bags of quahogs are then loaded onto the clam boat, which normally collects harvested quahogs from individual fishermen to sell. Fully loaded, the clam boat leaves the cove for the waters just outside the opening of Greenwich Bay. When the winter harvest season opens, the clams have had plenty of time to flush bacterial pollutants from their systems, and the quahoggers are able to harvest from the outer waters of Greenwich Bay.

Some of the area's marinas have volunteered to install upwellers in their docks. An upweller system, simply put, is a floating dock that contains baby shellfish. Also contained within the docks are a series of vents, pumps, and circulators that keep a constant flow of water traveling over the baby shellfish. In theory, by doing so, the shellfish have access to more nutrients and grow at a more rapid rate. In this picture, Lee Raymond, owner of Greenwich Bay Marina, shows Charlie Festa, an undergraduate Marine Affairs student at the University of Rhode Island, how the system works.