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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-3-21Agenda Shellfish Bylaw Review Workgroup March 21, 2013 6 p.m. Community Room, 4 Fairgrounds Road MEMBERS PRESENT: Bill Blount, Jo Perkins, Ron Shepherd, Stephen Estabrooks, Peter Brace, Ted Lambrecht, Doug Smith, Matt Herr MEMBERS ABSENT: Carl Sjolund STAFF: Jeff Carlson, Tara Riley OTHERS: Wass students, Neil Cocker, Dan Pronk CALL TO ORDER n APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA z c i Approved unanimously K m m ~ � m APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES —� Approved unanimously F m CHAIRMAN'S REPORT m w � co OLD BUSINESS Mussels — Neil Cocker The group revisited mussels with Mr. Cocker sharing his knowledge of the fishery in Nantucket waters and the group agreed that 1.5 inches should be the minimum legal size for harvesting because the thousands of eider ducks that feed on blue mussels during the winter don't care what size they are, so a two -inch minimum would be too restrictive. Mr. Cocker advised and the group re- affirmed that commercial mussel fishermen should use a maximum of four scallop dredges to harvest mussels because that amount is enough to catch all the mussels in a given bed while not scouring a trench through the mud. NEW BUSINESS Quahogs The group agreed with the current commercial season of year-round, commercial hours of sunrise to sunset and the state minimum size of one inch. The group discussed whether the daily limit should be 20 bushels. Mr. Pronk, who the town granted a commercial quahog permit in 2012 to take 20 bushels of quahogs a day, reported that he had yet to come close to getting that many a day since he got that permit. The group agreed that 20 bushels a day works. On methods, the workgroup decided that dredges and toothed hand rakes would be the gear. Mr. Herr noted that the state regulations allow a 48 -inch hydro-dredge for the taking of quahogs. Mr. Shepherd asked if quahogs caught as bycatch could be sold to island fishmongers, noting that it had been done in the past, but Mr. Blount reminded the group that the general shellfish bycatch was not on tonight's agenda. Mr. Shepherd said the group should determine which areas would be open to commercial quahogging and which would be closed, and who designates these areas. Mr. Herr said commercial quahoggers can't go for quahogs in and around the town part of the harbor including the Horseshed, but that they can dig on Hussey Shoal. Mr. Pronk confirmed this for the group. Mr. Shepherd said he thinks it's reasonable to designate certain areas as recreational -only for quahogs, but that there shouldn't be a regulation preventing recreational quahoggers for digging wherever they want to. Mr. Riley said she'd never heard of areas closed to recreational people and that it isn't written down anywhere that commercial guys can only dig on Hussey Shoal. Mr. Carlson said the group should expect to encounter a lot of unwritten rules, which either need to be formalized or done away with. Ms. Riley said there is an area outside of the harbor in Nantucket that the state closes to the taking of quahogs April I to April 30 and from June I to Sept. 15. Mr. Herr said these seasonal closures were set sometime in the 1970s. Mr. Shepherd said he recalled a state regulation prohibiting hydraulic dredges, but Mr. Carlson said that use of hydraulic dredges is a limited entry fishery for which the state isn't issuing anymore permits. Mr. Cocker described the stick dredge used by quahoggers on Cape Cod, which was a bull rake attached to the bow of a boat that the fishermen pumped up and down to loosen the clams, but that it was banned on the Cape because it worked too well and also destroyed the bottom. He added that some of the regulations for quahogging were hatched around that time. Mr. Blount said that if an offshore fishery is started in town waters, a hydraulic dredges would be needed to get these clams. Mr. Pronk agreed, indicating that it's nearly impossible to pull a dry dredge through sandy bottoms. Mr. Blount said the group should not outlaw hydraulic dredges because should this fishery expand, fishermen would need this dredge to get their catch. Mr. Shepherd asked Mr. Pronk to confirm that he was going by state regulations. Mr. Pronk said he was following town regulations. Mr. Shepherd asked where these regulations could be found. Ms. Riley explained that Mr. Pronk's commercial quahog permit was issued by the town last fall with conditions from the selectmen including 20 bushels per day, fishing only within the three -mile limit, the permit is invalid in all other waters, that he could not fish inside the 20 -foot contour line and he has to turn in weekly catch reports to the town shellfish biologist. Mr. Cocker noted that fishermen are prohibited from using a sea clam dredge for dredging quahogs and aren't allowed to use them anywhere there are quahogs and bay scallops. Mr. Shepherd asked staff if it's even the workgroup's mission to discuss the various types of clam dredging equipment. Ms. Riley said the group should treat the template in three different ways; look at the average quahogger, then the recreational and then define areas and dredge types. Mr. Blount suggested working on recommendations for these between this and next meeting. Mr. Shepherd offered that a short sentence be sentence be included in these revised quahog regulations, something like, "any other equipment must be sanctioned or approved by the selectmen and SHAB ". Ms. Riley agreed, but added that situations fitting this sentence would go through the Natural Resources Department and then the selectmen. Mr. Her suggested using the area delineated in Mr. Pronk's commercial quahog permit for all Nantucket's commercial quahoggers should this fishery restart in the future. Mr. Shepherd recommended that this segment of the quahog conversation be put on hold until Mr. Sjolund returns to the meetings because he's been going for quahogs all of his life. Mr. Pronk said there's not a lot of money. The group, led by Mr. Blount, agreed to continue the quahog discussion when Mr. Sjolund returns. The workgroup agreed that legal minimum size should be one inch thick and that the methods for quahogging should include, rakes, bull rakes, tongs and poles; essentially, only by hand. The group also discussed various other types of quahog harvesting equipment not widely used. Mr. Herr suggested defining what types of bull rakes could be used, but Mr. Blount said the bottom is too hard in our waters to pull such rakes through. Ms. Riley recommended that recreational quahogging should by hand only and no dredges. Recreational hours will be sunrise to sunset. Mr. Cocker told a large bed of quahogs exposed near Esther's Island in 1984, a situation in which Mr. Shepherd recalls Nantucket fishermen bringing in 2,000 pounds of quahogs per boat using scallop dredges. Mr. Shepherd asked how the regulations should be crafted to allow commercial harvest quahogs should this happen again. Mr. Shepherd said his inclination was that all commercial quahoggers should be prohibited from using scallop dredges to get quahogs unless the selectmen issued a special permit to do this. Mr. Pronk asked Mr. Shepherd if a large bed of quahogs opened up, what's the difference between a fisherman getting them with scallop dredges or hydraulic dredges. Mr. Shepherd said Mr. Pronk's point was valid because if such a bed of quahogs opened up in the harbor, scallopers could easily be tempted to go after them given no regulations against scallop dredges, which Mr. Shepherd said would tear up the bottom if used for quahogging. Mr. Herr said, and Ms. Riley concurred that this is a bycatch discussion issue. He added that if fishermen could take quahogs with a scallop dredge, they could get a $150 permit for quahogs and then also take bay scallops as their bycatch. And, Mr. Herr noted, fishermen with commercial quahog permits would be able to scout for bay scallops while dredging for quahogs before the commercial scallop season began and so, be ahead of the game. Mr. Her suggested, and the workgroup agreed, that if a bed of quahogs is discovered similar in size to the one found near Esther Island in 1984, the regulations should allow fishermen to apply for a special permit to use scallop dredges to go after the quahogs, get a recommendation from HSAB and approval from the selectmen. Mr. Pronk told the workgroup that he knew of six places, including the lagoon at Tuckemuck where it's "paved with quahogs ", around island waters where he could do this right now. Mr. Her qualified this suggestion by saying that in general, dredging for quahogs is not a good idea year-round because of how much "prospecting" for quahogs would chew up the bottom. It would be only happen under special circumstances. Mr. Pronk offered to take Ms. Riley and anyone else quahogging and to see the quahog bed over in the lagoon on the south end of Tuckemuck. He added that he wants to go prospecting in Tuckemuck's tidal ponds sometime. Conch Mr. Blount and Mr. Her noted that there are three commercial conch permitted fishermen on Nantucket. Mr. Her said the commercial conch season is April 15 to Dec. 15 because this is the only time they can be caught in pots and as bycatch. The group agreed that sunrise to sunset are the commercial hours and the legal minimum size is 2 % inches. Mr. Her said the state's Division of Marine Fisheries is currently discussing possible new size measurement methods in order to standardize the gauge and increasing the size of the legal limit. He added that the DMF estimates that 75% of the conch taken in Massachusetts waters is under 2'/4 inches. He further added that currently, the only limit on harvesting conch is the season and that pot fishermen are allowed a maximum of 200 pots, but there is no limit on conch as a bycatch. Mr. Herr said that DMFF doesn't allow towns in the state to regulate conch. He added that it's the third largest fishery in the state, 75% of the landings in the state come from Nantucket Sound and there are 80 active permits and 3/4s of the permits are used in Nantucket Sound. He added that he's been assured that the DMF won't be doing anything to keep conch fishermen from other coastal towns out of Nantucket's waters. Mr. Cocker and Mr. Blount recalled how fishing in Nantucket waters used to be enforced so that only Nantucketers could fish in them. Mr. Hen said it's pointless to try to keep other conch fishermen out of Nantucket's waters because there's so much money at stake and these fishermen would hire a lawyer that could easily convince the DMF of their position, which the DMF pretty much already supports, which is that each town's waters out to the three -mile limit are also state waters open to all. He added that DMF's head shellfish biologist Mike Hickey said that because Nantucket abandoned the conch fishery for the last decade with former harbormaster Dave Fronzuto encouraging this because at the time, conch were considered predators of bay scallops, fishermen from other towns established themselves in our fishing grounds. Mr. Hen mentioned that there is some maritime law on squatter's rights that allows these fishermen to keep fishing in our waters. He reiterated that Nantucket gave this fishery up to the Vineyard fishermen and that now, getting them out would be next to impossible even though Nantucket requires fishermen in its waters to prove year- round island residency before purchasing a commercial shellfish permit. Mr. Pronk noted that many conch pot fishermen are fishing 200 pots in our waters and 200 in theirs. The workgroup agreed that conch fishermen in Nantucket waters should fish only with conch pots, same as with a state permit and that areas of fishing should be Nantucket waters. Although Mr. Carlson said the $150 town permit for conch is worthless because it doesn't fund any kind of enforcement against outside fishermen in our waters, Mr. Hen said having that paper license may deter fishermen from away from actually fishing within Nantucket Harbor and added that the $150 license should remain as is with the option for the amount to be lowered. For recreational conch fishing, the group discussed if there was anyone actually going for them and when they can be harvested. It was agreed that those commercial fishing for other species could not recreationally fish for conch. The group agreed that the season should be same as for commercial, April 15 -Dec. 15 and sunrise to sunset during the day. A daily limit of 10 quarts per day or a half - bushel a week was agreed on. PUBLIC QUESTIONS AND COMMENT RECAP and ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING ADJOURN— Future Meetings: April 4 and April 18