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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHSAB Minutes - December 6, 2011_2014020513485832281 Nantucket Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board Minutes of Meeting held Dec. 6, 2011 Approved: Dec. 20, 2011 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 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 offices 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 poll 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 2 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 scallop spawning cages that can be used to overwinter oysters and scallops as well. She reported that she and her interns would continue harbor and pond water quality data collection. Ms. Riley said that the grant 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 have 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 March at the Milford Aquaculture Seminar on her larval release program in 2011. Ms. Riley said she’ll be giving a local presentation in April 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 3 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 Landfill 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-propagation 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 4 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 according 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 for the next menth, it’ll be crucial to have a command structure in place. Mr. Herr said the next important move is buy 100 fish totes at $13 each 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 be 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 approach NSA chairman Dan Drake to see if the NSA 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. 5 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. Fertilizer 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 be 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 Young. 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