Following statewide funding cuts in November, the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group is reassessing maintenance projects for this year and contemplating the future of its shell recovery program.

In response to a $329 million shortfall in the state budget, the Executive Office for Administration and Finance has reduced funding for a wide range of state agencies, in large part by eliminating earmarks for specific projects.

Spending reductions for the Division of Marine Fisheries included $100,000 in earmarks for shellfish propagation in Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties. As a result, the Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group will be out $33,000 this year. Last year the group received $25,000 from the state.

Executive director Rick Karney said the group’s hatchery in Vineyard Haven and its nursery on Chappaquiddick both would have benefited from the state money, and that some of the money may have helped pay for a new truck for use in the shell recovery program.

The program began several years ago and is supported by local foundations. Shells from restaurants and other sources are collected and returned to local ponds, where they provide habitat and help balance the water’s pH level. But the shellfish group does not intend to oversee the program indefinitely. Mr. Karney said the goal has been to hand it off to one of the Island refuse districts or to another group that could more easily handle the volume of shells.

“We thought this might be the last year,” Mr. Karney said Tuesday. He added that no one has offered to continue the program, but that with potential funding from Patagonia Inc. and from the state earmarks, it could have continued for another year or two. Without a truck, the program would likely end sooner.

“If the truck dies, then that’s probably the end of the program as far as we’re concerned,” Mr. Karney said. He did not expect the current truck to last through the year.

Mr. Karney said the shellfish group itself was not in financial trouble, since there are enough surplus funds to cover any minor shortfalls in the operating budget. “It just means that we spend more time fundraising and chasing down grant money than doing the work,” he said. “So it’s a little frustrating.”

State Rep. Tim Madden was responsible for adding the earmarks for the local shellfish programs. He said Tuesday that state officials “did not reach out to legislators at all regarding the cuts.” He said the state’s approach had been to take money from earmarks, along with those programs where contracts had not yet been executed.

If the DMF ends up with a budget surplus at the end of the fiscal year, that could help re-fund some of the projects, Mr. Madden said. But he thought it was unlikely that the earmarks for local shellfish programs would be reinstated this year.

“It’s disappointing, to say the least, but we’ll keep advocating,” he said.