HomeMy WebLinkAboutHSAB - Dec. 6 2011Nantucket Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board
Minutes of Meeting held Dec. 6, 2011
Approved:
Conference Room, 2 Fairgrounds Road
Call to Order at 4:36 p.m.
Members Present: Dr. Peter Boyce, Doug Smith, Bob
Rank, Peter Brace, Wendy McCrae, Michael Glowacki and
Bill Blount
Members Absent:
Marine Dept: Tara Riley, Dave Fronzuto
BOS: Whitey Willauer
Others: Matt Herr
Approval of Agenda:
Unanimously approved
Approval of Minutes:
Unanimously approved
Chairman’s Report:
$40 per pound in New York
Dr. Boyce reported that marine lab intern Steve Heck
saw Nantucket scallops in NYC for $39.99 a pound
recently.
Share meeting space with ROW Committee
Dr. Boyce said Allan Reinhard of the Roads and Rights of
Way Committee is asking HSAB to switch meeting rooms
with that committee every two months so that they’re
not meeting in the garage at 2FG all the time during the
winter. Dr. Boyce reported that he’d offered to do the
first switch with the ROW on Dec. 20. Ms. McCrae
stated she is not in favor of switching meeting space. Dr.
Boyce replied that Erika Mooney said that the 2FG
conference room is HSAB’s permanent meeting room, so
Ms. McCrae said the board should hold her to this so the
board doesn’t have to switch with the ROW. Mr. Blount
asked if the board could meet in the conference room of
the Town Annex building on Washington Street. Mr. Rank
said it’s because the building is not handicap accessible,
Dr. Boyce said the town was trying to justify the new
public safety building and Mr. Fronzuto said the town is
going to put more office in that space. Mr. Brace
recommended that Dr. Boyce revisit this issue with Ms.
Mooney. Mr. Fronzuto said he would find out if the annex
building space is still available or meeting space in the
new police station is open.
Dr. Boyce called for a straw pole to gauge the mood of
HSAB on swapping rooms with the ROW. Dr. Boyce, Mr.
Brace and Mr. Glowacki were in favor. Mr. Blount. Mr.
Smith and Mr. Rank were opposed and Ms. McCrae
abstained.
Marine Department Report:
Commercial Season Report
Mr. Fronzuto estimated the bushel count at around
10,000. He reported that the boats are starting to come
in later. There are still scallopers fishing in Madaket, but
Mr. Fronzuto said they’re starting to move into
Nantucket Harbor. Whereas there were 19 boats going in
Madaket, now there are 13. He added that Madaket
fishermen are still getting their limits and that the
scallops looked great. There was a total of a 57 boats in
both harbors. Dr. Boyce said he heard from a friend in
Peconic Bay, Long Island that their harvest would be
“somewhat” less than last year’s. Mr. Fronzuto said that
Peconic Bay scallopers can take 10 bushels per license and
20 per boat, and added that their scallopers have already
harvested the bulk of their scallops, going from 3,200
from pounds of meats on opening day to 200 to 400
pounds a day. Mr. Fronzuto said this glutted the market
causing Nantucket’s boat price to drop.
Mr. Smith, who recently started selling his scallops
online, had 18 orders of 2-3 pounds per order prior to
Thanksgiving, 55 pounds total.
Propagation plans for 2012
Ms. Riley said she would return to the island from
Zanzibar on Feb. 17. She stated that she’s planning on
releasing 140 million scallop seed in both harbors via
eight release events. She’ll expand the town’s propagation
activities in Madaket Harbor, as the Madaket Admiralty
Club and the Madaket Conservation Association want this
to happen. She will continue to map release locations and
where the resulting seed concentrate to see if there’s
any connection between larvae release points and seed
locations.
Ms. Riley said she is going to buy around 20 more
spawning cages that will double as oyster bottom cages to
scallops in during the summer, using them as spawning
cages and then during the winter, they can be used to
overwinter oysters and scallops. She reported that she
and her interns would continue harbor and pond water
quality data collection.
Ms. Riley said that the grant the town would benefit
from through the University of Connecticut to study the
rust tide algal bloom in Nantucket Harbor, Peconic Bay,
Long Island, and Chesapeake Bay fell through.
Ms. Riley said she would continue to expand and work on
the town’s aquaculture program. For lab renovations and
improvements, she recommended that a sign should be
purchased for the north end of the boathouse announcing
the lab and its activities. She added that they’re going to
add climate control to the lab and install a larger, higher
capacity algae production system to streamline the now-
labor intensive algae production system.
As for her ongoing collaborations with outside
organizations, Ms. Riley reported that she’ll continue
working with Wampanoag Environmental lab on the
Vineyard, that she’ll working relationships with the
Madaket Admiralty Club and the Madaket Conservation
Association, and doing programs with Dr. Boyce and the
Maria Mitchell Association. She added that she’ll be
giving a presentation in April at the National
Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration shellfish
hatchery in Milford, Conn. on her larval release program
in 2011. Ms. Riley said she’ll be giving another
presentation in Milford on her trip to Zanzibar.
Mr. Willauer asked Ms. Riley what is limiting the amount
of water quality testing she is currently doing. Mr.
Fronzuto replied that money to pay people to collect
samples and get the samples analyzed is the limiting
factor. Ms. Riley added that she is going to need more
people in 2012 to work on the water quality program
because the planned doubling of algae production will
require more work from her interns. She said two
additional interns would solve this problem.
Mr. Fronzuto noted that although water quality data is
the crucial foundation of all wastewater projects on the
island, including for the Estuaries Project and sewering
needs areas along with Madaket, the town doesn’t fund
the collection of this data, private donors do, but it’s
year to year, so Mr. Fronzuto and Ms. Riley spend a lot of
time courting donors that can’t be relied on for annual
funds. Mr. Willauer said he would try to channel funds
earned by the Madaket Mall wind turbine to fund two
more interns at the lab.
Mr. Fronzuto said the water quality program budget is
around $45,000 for sample analysis and $9,000 more to
pay an additional intern. Dr. Boyce said it’s vital that the
town fund the water quality program so the Marine
Department doesn’t have to depend on private donors to
keep the program going. Mr. Glowacki agreed with Dr.
Boyce, adding that $55,000 is a small amount relative to
the entire town budget and that HSAB should
recommend to the selectmen, the Finance Committee and
Town Meeting voters that the town should fund this
request. Mr. Willauer advised the board to proceed with
Mr. Glowacki’s idea.
Mr. Fronzuto said the need for the town to fund water
quality testing is even more critical given that he no
longer gets an annual grant of $25,000 from the state to
augment the roughly $45,000-progatation budget. He
reiterated his previous request of HSAB to support
changing the percentage of shellfish permit revenue
going toward the propagation budget from 75% to 100%.
Mr. Brace asked Mr. Fronzuto which one the selectmen
should support, paying for the water quality program or
100% of shellfish permit fees going to the shellfish
propagation fund. Mr. Fronzuto said these are two
separate issues. He added that both needed to be
supported.
Mr. Glowacki indicated that he thought the selectmen
and the voters would support funding the water quality
program if this need is sold to them as an essential
component of the Marine Dept. budget. Mr. Fronzuto
agreed, noting that 2011 Town Meeting voters supported
the Madaket residents’ article for $100,000 to fund
mosquito control. Mr. Fronzuto said that a fee-based
system is the fairest because all users fund the activity
they’re participating in and that having the town fund
water quality sampling is sustainable unlike donor funding.
Ms. McCrae made a motion to have Dr. Boyce act on
behalf of HSAB to work with Mr. Fronzuto in getting the
town to fund the Marine Department’s water quality
program. Mr. Smith seconded Ms. McRae’s motion. HSAB
voted unanimously in favor of Ms. McCrae’s motion.
Mr. Smith asked Mr. Fronzuto if the Marine Dept. got all
of the permit fee revenue, would it cover the water
quality program. Mr. Fronzuto said that it helps with
around $15,000 going toward the total water quality
budget. He added that if scallop populations increase
with the help of Ms. Riley’s efforts, so too should the
number of permits purchased and likewise, the revenue
gathered, that can go back toward propagation and water
quality.
Other items
Ms. McCrae asked how many scallop boats going out per
day and Mr. Fronzuto said they are averaging 55 per day.
Old Business: 5:23 p.m.
Mooring systems – schedule discussion
Dr. Boyce stated that he put this item on the agenda to
remind the board it wants to speak with the mooring
company owners. Mr. Fronzuto said he would contact the
mooring people to get them to one of HSAB’s meeting in
January. By that time, he’ll know if his department is
going purchase the Moorings Online software, which, with
the help of the mooring company owners, would help to
keep moorings out of shellfish/eelgrass beds.
Seed stranding plans – Matt Herr
Mr. Herr detailed for the board the beginnings of his
proposed seed management plan, stating that the first
steps include identifying the people who would be putting
it into action. He added that although he’s spoken to a
bunch of people, he hasn’t gotten commitments from any
of them, but he hopes to have a phone tree of people
committed to helping out. He acknowledged that he still
needs to develop a protocol to follow when there is a
storm event that reacts to the accordingly to the given
severity of the storm. Mr. Herr said his goal is to get the
names and numbers of people who commit to the seed
management plan by the next meeting of HSAB on Jan. 3,
2012.
Mr. Herr said he wanted to have leaders in place ASAP
because with Ms. Riley in Zanzibar until Feb. 17 and Mr.
Herr away on vacation this winter, it’ll be crucial to have
a command structure in place. Mr. Herr said the next
important move is buy fish 100 fish totes at $13 a piece
for the collection of seed and establish a central location
to store them where people can pick them up and return
them because during the last stranding, seed rescuers
ran out of receptacles. Mr. Fronzuto asked Mr. Herr if
he thought 100 totes might too many. Mr. Herr said he
had 75 totes he brought to the last stranding and they
weren’t enough.
Mr. Willauer suggested that Mr. Herr make a proposal to
the Nantucket Shellfish Association that the NSA buy
100 fish totes. Mr. Herr said he would be doing that as
well as hitting up other potential funding sources. With
the personnel and the tote boxes, Mr. Herr said these
are the essentials of seed stranding response, which he
wants to have in place soon. Mr. Fronzuto agreed with Mr.
Herr’s points. Mr. Willauer said he would speak with NSA
chairman Dan Drake that night to see if the NSA
committee could vote soon to buy the totes.
Mr. Smith asked Mr.Fronzuto if there was any news on
the stranding team being able to use one of the police
ATVs to patrol the harbor beaches for seed. Mr.
Fronzuto said he would follow up with the police on this
idea. He added that he would also create some sort of
access map showing how to get down to the beaches. Mr.
Brace said the most difficult section of the harbor shore
is from Monomoy to Quaise. Mr. Herr said that boats
could also be used to check the beaches, but more
importantly, the knowledge of where the seed is in the
harbor will save a lot of time searching for it after a
blow because rescuers will know which beaches to check.
New Business:
HSAB Annual Report
Dr. Boyce passed out copies HSAB’s contribution to the
town’s 2011 annual report and asked for comments. There
were no comments and the board unanimously approved
HSAB’s 2011 annual report.
Best Management Practices
Dr. Boyce said the committee is updating the selectmen
at their Dec. 7 meeting and will be presenting the home
rule petition and the board of health regulation. The plan
still needs to be edited for grammar before it’s released.
Dr. Boyce said it’s an excellent report. Dr. Boyce said the
BOS would be asked to adopt the plan and then various
educational materials would be excerpted from it and he
added that he will be writing up a version to go in the
Nantucket Blue Pages. Mr. Glowacki said it might helpful
to schedule a meeting to determine which parts of this
plan would be best for educational materials.
Dr. Boyce asked if HSAB is interested in hearing from
the chair of the Article 68 Workgroup, Lucinda Williams.
The board agreed she should come to the Jan. 3, 2011
meeting. Dr. Boyce said he would set this up.
Shellfish Management Plan
Mr. Herr said the work on this plan was coming to end and
that there were two more meetings, the first of which is
Dec. 7. Mr. Herr added that the committee recently got
the completed plan back from the Urban Harbors
Institute in draft form and there will be two meetings to
go through all of the plan’s sections before the
committee takes a month off to get public comment on
the plan before public meeting on the plan tentatively set
for late February.
Fee exemption for Boat Basin
Mr. Fronzuto said, in response to questions from the
board at the Nov. 15 HSAB meeting that the Nantucket
Boat Basin is not exempt from the mooring fees July 1
and on. Based on the statute, the boats moored long-term
in the basin are charged the fee, but 80-90% of the boat
basin’s slips are transient. The mooring fee for the long-
term boats is $60.
Adjournment: 5:54 p.m.
Unanimously approved.
Next Meetings:
Dec. 20, 2011 and Jan. 3, 2012
Respectfully submitted,
Peter B. Brace, Secretary