Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-1-17Nantucket Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board Minutes of Meeting held Jan. 17, 2012 Approved: Feb 7, 2012 Conference Room, 2 Fairgrounds Road Call to Order at 4:30 p.m. Members Present: Dr. Peter Boyce, Doug Smith, Bob Rank, Peter B. Brace, Bill Blount, Michael Glowacki and Wendy McCrae Members Absent: Marine Dept: Dave Fronzuto z BOS: Whitey Willauer D N Others: Fred Holdgatezi c --o Approval of Agenda: ry M Unanimously approved. —rn+ C" rn Approval of Minutes: o -a :3 < M Unanimously approved. z co ° Chairman's Report: r can Request for Mussel fishermen Dr. Boyce reported that he got a request from a shellfish buyer in Rhode Island who sells mussels he buys mostly in Maine to see if anyone on island needs such a buyer or wants to grow mussels in island waters. Mr. Blount said paralytic shellfish poison (red tide) can be a problem with mussels and that the offshore mussel fishery has been shut down since last summer because of this. He added that Nantucketers have a better chance of growing mussels since we're further away from the mainland. Mr. Fronzuto noted the Nantucket's waters were last closed for shellfish because of red tide in 2005. Dr. Boyce's intent was to see if anyone was interested in doing this or knew anyone on island would be. Mr. Holdgate said the Nantucket Shellfish Association should be notified about this and Dr. Boyce confirmed that he had done that. Marine Department Report: Commercial Season Report Mr. Fronzuto estimated the bushel count to be around 14,000 as of this meeting. Mr. Blount, in adding some perspective, reported that fellow scalloper Jeff Henderson has shipped 44,000 pounds of bay scallops to a buyer in Boston so far this season. Water Quality Funding Mr. Fronzuto detailed and explained the FY2013 shellfish propagation and shellfish biologist budgets. He reported that this year's water quality testing would be paid for by revenue from the waterways improvement fund. He made the case that the board needs to support a home rule petition to change the shellfish license revenue stream from 75% going to the propagation fund to 100% to give the shellfish biologist a bit of cushion in completing her duties and that grants and private donations cannot be relied on annually. If the home rule petition succeeded, the roughly $15,000 from that missing 25% of the shellfish license fee revenue would go immediately to propagation efforts. He said he bases these numbers on his estimate that the sale of shellfish licenses takes in roughly $60,000 annually. Mr. Fronzuto explained the propagation budget and how it functions under the fiscal year model, reminding the board that as of July 1, 2011, roughly $24,000 of the $45,000 in the budget had been spent. He also reminded the board that shellfish biologist Tara Riley's salary comes from the General Fund, not the propagation budget. Mr. Brace suggested not raising the shellfish license and late -entry fees too high so as not to drive people away, and keep the revenue flowing into the propagation fund. Mr. Fronzuto stressed that this operating budget is tight, basically one dollar in and one dollar out. Dr. Boyce asked Mr. Fronzuto what the town's mood is about the propagation fund receiving the other 25% of license fee revenues and Mr. Fronzuto said he didn't think anyone in the town would see this as a bad thing. Mr. Blount said that this extra money going toward propagation would then come back into the community 10 -fold. Mr. Fronzuto reiterated that $15,000, considering the size of the town's budget, is not that much money. Mr. Brace asked if there was anyone on the board who thought it shouldn't support this home rule petition. Mr. Brace added that if this article is approved at Town Meeting, it could then be filed during the current session and could be in place in 2013. He used the Article 68 workgroup efforts as an example. Mr. Glowacki said the board should support this article and asked if the water quality testing budget was around $90,000. Mr. Fronzuto said it's around $40,000. Mr. Glowacki stressed that the board needed to get going supporting both the request for the town to pay for annual water quality testing and the home rule petition to put 100% of the shellfish fee revenues into the propagation fund. Dr. Boyce said he is uncomfortable funding water quality testing from the propagation fund. Mr. Fronzuto explained the necessity of the interns helping Ms. Riley with the water quality sampling and how they can only be paid for 15 weeks and then paid under a different pay system covering September, October and November. Mr. Fronzuto encouraged everyone to attend the Jan. 24 FinCom meeting to support the need for annual town funding of water quality testing. Dr. Boyce said the license fee information is available to the Board, it's easy to see where the money goes. Mr. Fronzuto continued to explain the propagation budget. Mr. Brace asked if Mr. Fronzuto really needed to defend this budget during the FinCom review process. Mr. Fronzuto said that it rarely gets scrutinized because it's a revolving fund. He added that there's no fat to trim at all from this budget. Dr. Boyce asked Mr. Fronzuto had been working on the Town Meeting article to change the amount of license fee revenue going to the propagation fund from 75% to 100 %. Mr. Fronzuto said that if the board wanted to push this, it could become a home rule petition article this year and with state legislative support, become reality in 2013. Mr. Glowacki said there should be a stable source of funding for water quality testing, but that the door should be left open for creative ways for capturing the missing 25% such having the selectmen assign up to 100% of the revenues to the propagation fund. The board voted unanimously to start the process of writing the home rule petition for this year's Town Meeting. Old Business: Shellfish Management Plan Dr. Boyce said the next meeting is Jan. 26 in the selectmen's meeting room at 4FG and they are expecting to get comments on the full draft and the SMP won't be released to the public until the committee turns in its comments on this draft. He added that three outside scientists were reviewing the plan including Steve Tettelbaum who is leading Long Island's Peconic Bay scallop restoration project, a person with the Nature it Conservancy working on hard clams in Great South Bay, and a professor at the University of New Hampshire. Following the gathering of these comments and those from the committee, the Urban Harbors Institute will incorporate the changes into the plan and it will be released to the public on Feb. 1. After a public hearing, the committee will use public comments to create a final draft of the SMP which will be presented to the BOS for adoption. Article 68 Work Group Report Dr. Boyce reported that the Article 68 Workgroup is getting very close to finishing its work, that Lee Saperstein is now the chairman of the Article 68 Workgroup and that former chairman Lucinda Young is going to be doing the final editing of the draft. He added that the formal regulations were delivered to the selectmen who passed them on to the Board of Health for adoption. The Article 68 Workgroup will finish the Best Management Practices document which specifies when and how to fertilize so that excess nitrogen does not enter the ground water and the harbors. He added that on Feb. 9, there will be a joint meeting of the Board of Health and the Article 68 Workgroup. On March 13, the Nantucket Land Council will sponsor a workshop for island landscapers at which UConn and UMass professors will present ways to keep fertilizer use to a minimum and protect Nantucket's waters. Mr. Glowacki said this is a good move by the Land Council. Dr. Boyce noted that there would be other related hearings during this period and that he would confirm these dates and send everyone an email. Since it has been longer than a year the Town Meeting has to re- affirm the home rule petition, and has drafted a warrant article that it hopes Town Meeting will adopt and would then be sent to the state legislature. New Business: Commercial Shellfish License Fees Mr. Smith said he'd heard some discussion about this issue on the docks recently and that he was disappointed that only one person came to the meeting despite how well noticed it was. He added that all of the people he's spoken with are in favor of doubling the cost of a commercial scallop license for late -entry fishermen as well as a penalty period. He added that he supports the board's desire to have a 100% of the revenues from shellfish license fees go into the propagation fund. Ms. McCrae stated that the people she'd spoken with were against the doubling of this license fee and she said that if HSAB approves doubling of the late -entry fee, it would show favoritism to the fishermen who buy their licenses prior to the March 31 deadline. She suggested that this fee be cut in half instead and she urged the board to represent all of the scallopers. Mr. Rank said he recalled the reason for one of the previous fee increases, along with making scallopers buy their licenses at least seven months before the start of the next season was to keep people from joining the fishery right after a bountiful season began. He added that if someone wants to fish a given season, they should buy it before deadline and that he doesn't believe in the late -entry license, saying that without the late -entry fee, the fishing is more stable and the safety of scallop boats is enhance. On raising the fee, Mr. Rank said that he'd support a "modest" increase to keep Mr. Riley's efforts moving uninterrupted, but that he didn't want it to go up too much. Ms. McCrae said she agreed with Mr. Rank's belief in a "modest" increase. She added that if there are so many people in favor of doubling the fee, why didn't they show up for the meeting when it was so extensively advertised. 3 Mr. Blount said he's done late -entry at least twice because he didn't have the money at the end of March to buy his license and that the late -entry license does allow new people to join the fishery and that. Mr. Smith added that scalloper Marina Finch was one of the people who called him about this issue and she told him she'd wanted to attend the meeting, but that she had a family matter to deal with. Mr. Blount said that Mr. Fronzuto needs a way to deal with genuine hardship situations and that the late -entry fee provides one. Mr. Fronzuto agreed with Mr. Blount. He added that most late- entries are those who lost their job or their partner is out of work, and these are not people who are putting their own boats in the water; they're going as a seconde person in the boat with fishermen who already fishing. Ms. McCrae agreed with Mr. Fronzuto and added that given the current economy, doubling the fee doesn't make sense. Mr. Brace said that doubling the fee seemed too much because if most late- entries are as Mr. Fronzuto described, then they're probably not going to have the money for the license. He suggested raising it by $100. He added that he didn't agree with the assertion that raising the fee is favoring the fishermen buying their licenses before March 31. Dr. Boyce said another reason for raising this fee is an attempt at stabilizing the propagation fund. Mr. Brace asked if there were any fishermen that bought their licenses in the fall if the season was good and they were making their money. Mr. Fronzuto said no and that sometimes people buy them in January or February if they're going on vacation for the winter. He added that some people buy licenses for others as well. Mr. Glowacki said he was in favor of raising the fee if it meant increasing the amount of funds going toward propagation. Mr. Holdgate said he didn't think raising the fee is needed to stabilize the fund because year to year, only a handful of people actually use their late -entry license because they mostly buy them as insurance against losing their winter shore work. Dr. Boyce polled the board on raising the late -entry fee by $100. Mr. Brace offered that it might make late -entry fishermen buy their licenses before the deadline. Ms. McCrae suggested raising the fee by $50 because she felt that $100 was heading toward doubling the fee. Mr. Fronzuto reiterated that the board doesn't have to decide on this right now because permit buying period is going on currently, so whatever the board chose to do would affect the 2013/2014 season. Ms. McCrae said the board should act on this issue since it was brought up so quickly and asked if the board should do this. Mr. Brace reminded the board and Dr. Boyce agreed that it still needs to hear from Matt Herr on this issue before it takes a vote. Mr. Rank suggested raising the late -entry fee the percentage of increase for the regular license. He added that he understands the concept of the late -entry license, but that he's not in favor of it. Mr. Holdgate suggested requiring late -entry applicants to go before HSAB to get their license to make it a bit more difficult to get this license, make these fishermen think twice about buying their licenses after the deadline. But Dr. Boyce said that would mean the board coming up with criteria for applicants to meet. Mr. Fronzuto agreed with Dr. Boyce that coming up with criteria would be challenging. Mr. Smith noted that criteria already exist for the late -entry license application and wondered aloud who brought up the fee increase, saying that nobody wants the fees to go up. Ms. McRae said applying the criteria is Mr. Fronzuto's job and that because the board only meets every two weeks, this would slow the process down even more for applicants. Mr. Fronzuto said going before HSAB would probably prevent those fishermen who really needed the money from being able to work. Dr. Boyce said that channeling 100% of license fee revenue to the propagation fund negates the need to raise fees and that the board should focus on that. Mr. Fronzuto said he's interested in seeing how much revenue the recent addition of a $50- short-term 4 recreational license will generate. Dr. Boyce asked for a motion to keep the late -entry fee increase issue alive. Ms. McCrae motioned to raise the late -entry fee by $50. Mr. Smith said he would second Ms. McCrae's motion if the board was successful in getting the FinCom's positive recommendation for putting the remaining 25% of license fee revenues into the propagation. Ms. McCrae's motion died for lack of a second. The board will likely keep this issue on the agenda through the FinCom/Town Meeting period. Mr. Fronzuto said he would bring information on how many late -entry licenses he sold and how many fishermen who bought them actually scalloped going back several years. The board voted unanimously for Dr. Boyce to write a letter of support on behalf of HSAB for getting remaining the 25% for the FinCom. The board agreed to keep the late -entry fee increase issue on future agendas. Adjournment: 6:17 p.m. Unanimously approved. Next Meetings: February 7 and 21, 2012 Respectfully submitted, Peter B. Brace, Secretary A