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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-04-14Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014 at 5:00 p.m. Community Room, 4 Fairgrounds Road Members present: Peter Brace, Wendy McCrae, Dr. Peter Boyce, Bill Blount Members Absent: Chuck Connors, Michael Glowacki, Doug Smith Marine Dept: Natural Resources Dept: Jeff Carlson, Tara Riley Others: CALL TO ORDER APPROVAL OF AGENDA Unanimously approved APPROVAL OF MINUTES Unavailable for consideration CHAIRMAN'S REPORT Elected /appointed board news Mr. Brace reported that S.979 is still in the third reading in the state House of Representatives. Ms. McCrae asked what the passage of this bill would mean for the HSAB. Mr. Brace explained that fishermen on HSAB would be able to vote on fishing related issues free of the worry of a conflict of interest. MARINE DEPARTMENT REPORT: General harbors update — Sheila Lucey Ms. Lucey wasn't present at this meeting, so no report on the harbors. NATURAL RESOURCES REPORT General report from Jeff Carlson and or Tara Riley Mr. Carlson reported a good start to the 2014/2015 commercial scallop season with 39 boats fishing in Nantucket Harbor on Nov. 4, primarily on Hussey Shoal, and six in Madaket. He said there've been reports of a lot of nub scallops in Madaket and some pockets of seed out in the Wild West End. He added that the total harvest to date is around 500 bushels. Mr. Carlson reported that the nor'easter over the weekend stranded 20 -25 bushels of scallop seed in Quaise and that several scallops and NRD staff were able to collect much of this stranding and return the scallops to the harbor. Mr. Brace asked if anyone had been out to fish off of Tuckemuck and Mr. Carlson said Nov. 4 was the first day any scallopers had been out there to poke around. He added that the boat price started out at $14 /lb. on opening day. PUBLIC COMMENT ON MARINE DEPARTMENT / NATURAL RESOURCES REPORT Ms. McCrae recalled that when she was chairwoman, she cultivated a good relationship with the harbormaster, meeting with that person regularly to keep up with their needs and problems. She noted that the board had the harbormaster sit at the board's meeting table. She added that she wants the board to make more of an effort to support the harbormaster by getting in tune with her needs. Mr. Brace said that when Dave Fronzuto was harbormaster, he handled both NRD and harbor duties, so the harbormaster was more engaged with the HSAB. Ms. McCrae said the board needs to make an effort to make Sheila Lucey feel included so the board's and Ms. Lucey's relationship is "more cohesive ". She added that if Mr. Brace goes to speak with Ms. Lucey, she's like to go with him. She recommended that Mr. Brace meet with Ms. Lucey the week before every HSAB meeting to stay in touch with her situation. Dr. Boyce agreed, having been chairman and having had these regular meetings with Mr. Fronzuto when he was harbormaster. Mr. Brace cited Ms. Lucey's successful changes to the the slip lottery and her quest for an amphibious rescue boat as examples of the harbormaster not coming to the HSAB for support, as an example of why the HSAB needs to work closer with Ms. Lucey. Dr. Boyce noted that the marine department is much smaller than it was and that the board can very easily strive to make Ms. Lucey feel that she's not alone and can lean on the HSAB when she needs to. OLD BUSINESS Revised shellfish regulations — continued discussion Dr. Boyce distributed a proposal that whenever five days are missed, the HSAB would then discuss it and make a recommendation to the selectmen on how to help the scallopers make up for lost days. He reasoned that five days was an average of the number of days lost in previous seasons. This would be an operating procedure, not a regulation. Ms. McCrae said the five days would push the missed days issue to be a topic of discussion a lot earlier than waiting until 25 days had been accrued. Ms. Riley said Dr. Boyce's proposal sounded reasonable. Mr. Carlson this is an internal policy decision for the HSAB. Dr. Boyce said he purposely left the potential action to be taken vague because any number of situations can occur and so allows the right remedy for a given situation. Mr. Blount cautioned that if the board adopts this policy that it take action at the meeting at which the five lost days is discussed and not postpone it. The HSAB voted to adopt this new policy and to insert it into the revised shellfish regulations. Days missed to cold and or inclement weather NEW BUSINESS Division of Marine Fisheries advisory panel meeting — briefing: Tara Riley Ms. Riley reported that the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries formed a Shellfish Advisory Panel, which meets quarterly, and it initially didn't include a representative from Nantucket. Ms. Riley and shellfish warden JC Johnson went anyway. She updated the HSAB on the topics discussed. Ms. Riley reported that the DMV is working on revising its vibrio virus protocols for 2015, creating a pilot program for shellfish transaction cards for workers of aquaculture farms who are not the owners so they can harvest for their owners and creating a harbor closure limit of three years for shellfish reasons with an appeal process. She added that wet storage is going to become a state law, in that recreational shellfishermen will be prohibited from storing their catch in the water, that green crab populations in the state aren't nearly as bad as they are in Maine and that some of the crabs are being trapped for bait. Mr. Blount asked Ms. Riley why there's a lot less eelgrass in the harbor this year. She said that placement of moorings has a lot to do with the loss of eelgrass. Dr. Boyce said the lingbia blooms lately aren't helping. PUBLIC QUESTIONS AND COMMENT Dr. Boyce explained that the Nantucket Shellfish Association had expressed some concern that the revised shellfish regulations haven't got the publicity that they wanted them to. Mr. Brace noted that the inky did story previewing the May 20 public hearing on the revisions, that the revisions were posted on the town's web site and that several of the NSA's members sat on the Shellfish Bylaw Review Workgroup, which worked through the revisions. Ms. McCrae said she'd received several comments from her constituents not wanting the HSAB to remove the free two - bushel commercial license handed out to residents of Nantucket 60 years and older. Mr. Brace agreed that the board would revisit this issue at the Nov. 18 meeting. RECAP and ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING ADJOURN Unanimously approved Future Meetings: Dec. 2 and Dec. 16 Respectfully Submitted, Peter B. Brace, Chairman