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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-20-15Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. Nantucket High School Cafeteria, 10 Surfside Road Members present: Peter Brace, Wendy McCrae, Dr. Peter Boyce, Bill Blount Members Absent: Michael Glowacki, Ken Gullicksen, Andy Lowell Marine Dept: Natural Resources Dept: Jeff Carlson Others: Dave Fronzuto CALL TO ORDER APPROVAL OF AGENDA Unanimously approved APPROVAL OF MINUTES Unanimously approved CHAIRMAN'S REPORT Mr. Brace informed the board that he'd sent them the link to the information provided at the minutes seminar held by the town on Sept. 30. He also said that town biologist Kaitlyn Shaw would be presenting her water quality sampling results and analysis to the board at its Nov. 3 meeting. MARINE DEPARTMENT REPORT: There was no Marine Department, as Harbormaster Sheila Lucey was not present at the meeting NATURAL RESOURCES REPORT General report from Jeff Carlson Marine lab renovation project Mr. Carlson reported that they opened the bids at the end of September and they were a bit over budget, the budget being $1.9 million. An article on the warrant of the special Town Meeting set for Nov. 9 would allocate another $1.5 million. They did pick the lowest bidder, Merit Construction from Rhode Island and they'll be starting construction on Nov. 30. He added that the NRD would see reimbursement for some of this money from the Capital Programs Committee and the Community Preservation Committee and that they hope to have the project completed by the end of June 2016, but he expects shellfish biologist Tara Riley to be about to move back into the lab a month or so prior to begin preparing shellfish propagation duties for the season. Carlson said once completely renovated, the new lab will allow Ms. Riley to produce 700 to 900 million scallop larvae annually. He also reported that Ms. Riley and Leah Cabral went to the International Oyster Conference on Cape Cod. Dr. Boyce asked the deadline for the CPC. Carlson said by Thanksgiving and that he's confident the marine lab renovation project would be fully funded within the next three weeks. Dr. Boyce asked that Carlson remind Ms. Riley that there was better success with earlier releases of scallop larvae and he also asked that there also be a very early water quality sample early in the season to get more complete data. Ms. McCrae asked whether the current staff could handle the extra work of producing the increase amount of scallop larvae. Mr. Carlson assured her that new systems in the hatchery would monitor and control a lot of the processes and conditions in the lab previously done manually by the staff. Recreational scallop season Mr. Carlson then reported that the town opened Sesachacha Pond to the ocean on Oct. 12 and Hummock Pond on Oct. 16, and that they saw a lot of herring coming out of both ponds. He added that Ms. Shaw is developing some more detailed and extensive testing protocols to test the impacts of pond openings on these ponds. On the recreational scallop season, which began Oct. 1, Mr. Carlson said it started slow. He noted a lot of nubs in Madaket this year and the NRD's efforts to quantify this. He also mentioned that there's been a lot of large classic adults in Quaise and Pocomo this year. He said so far, recreational scallopers have harvested 400 to 500 bushels. Dredging of the main harbor channel Mr. Fronzuto said the dredge for this project is in the harbor and would be here for the next 4 -5 weeks dredging around 50,000 cubic yards from the main channel. He added that there's a few spots where the channel has shoaled up to 10 feet deep at low tide. He added that he is developing a dredge profile for the entire island's waterways, except for the channel going into the lagoon at the east end of Tuckernuck. Jetties reconstruction project Mr. Fronzuto reported that a bid protest filed in first week of October has delayed the project 90 days. There were 20 bidders. PUBLIC COMMENT ON MARINE DEPARTMENT / NATURAL RESOURCES REPORT There was no public comment on either of the reports. OLD BUSINESS Over -60 free commercial scallop license — Continued discussion Mr. Brace reported that Lionel Stan and Vic Reed, and their support group would be willing to compromise on the restoration of the two bushels per day harvested by dredge on a boat and would be willing to accept two bushels per week. Mr. Blount arrived at 5:35pm. Mr. Fronzuto said that Chapter 122 of Nantucket's bylaws, The Taking of Shellfish and Chapter 130, Nantucket's shellfish regulations cover this. He added that that the shellfish regulations prior to the Board of Selectmen's adoption of revisions to these regulations on May 1, 2014, the regulations did not charge a fee for a commercial scallop license to commercial scallopers over 60 that don't hold a state permit and it allowed them to harvest two bushels a day that they couldn't sell on the commercial market. He also said the bylaw said that commercial scallop licenses are free to resident applicants over 60 that don't have a state permit and agree not to sell their catch on the commercial market. He added that this was approved in 2012. No bushel number is specified, Mr. Fronzuto reported. Mr. Brace explained that the Shellfish Bylaw Review Workgroup and the HSAB voted recommend to the selectmen to end the over -60 license because of abuse: license holders were selling their two- bushel daily catch. Mr. Fronzuto said the abuse can be dealt with violations and penalties, and said if the reason this license was done away was because of abuse, it was "a poor reason ". Mr. Brace explained that Mr. Starr had been gathering signatures from supporters for reinstatement of the over -60 license in hopes of initiating a special Town Meeting to get this voted on. Mr. Fronzuto informed the HSAB that the warrant for the Nov. 9 special Town Meeting had already been opened and closed. Mr. Fronzuto recommended that HSAB and Mr. Starr submit his article for the annual Town Meeting in April 2016. By way of background, Mr. Fronzuto said aren't a lot of residents on the island over 60 who'll rig a scallop boat just to go get two bushels a week, so he doesn't see that there's much abuse. He recommended that the HSAB and Mr. Starr create a revised recommendation to the selectmen and request a public hearing for the selectmen to vote on amending the town's shellfish regulations to reflect the two- bushel/week compromise. Mr. Brace said he might request a pre - selectmen meeting with the town manager and the BOS chairman to outline what the HSAB is proposing. Mr. Fronzuto said the compromise of two bushels a week would be much easier to enforce. Mr. Carlson said this license should not be called a commercial license, that another less benign name would be less confusing for people. He added there are a lot of ways to make this easy to comply with such as a different color bushel box and a harvester tag specific to this license. Mr. Fronzuto recommended that the penalty for violations of this proposed compromise be severe. Dr. Boyce asked if there should be training for the Nantucket residents obtaining this proposed license. Ms. McCrae asked it's possible that a non - commercial person has a commercial license. Dr. Boyce explained that any year -round Nantucket resident 14 years of age and older can buy one. Mr. Carlson said those over -60 license holders could be required to go through the town's apprentice program before they could dredge by themselves. Mr. Blount said these license holders would be limited anyway since they won't have a state shellfish license. Mr. Fronzuto said he would get the HSAB all the Town Meeting citizens article creation dates including when town counsel is on island to help with the language for these articles. The HSAB agreed to continue this discussion to its Nov. 3, 2015 meeting. Mooring/slip regulations — discussion and recommendations This discussion was continued to the meeting of Nov. 3, 2015 NEW BUSINESS Expanding the Children's Beach boat ramp Mr. Fronzuto said this boat ramp was designed for three boats to be launched/hauled at a time. He added that a police officer can called for to direct traffic in the event of a storm. He also suggested the use of a Mobi -Mat that can trucked to this beach, rolled out and used for a temporary, additional boat launch that boat owners would access through a gate in the south bulkhead at the Children's Beach boat ramp. Mr. Fronzuto said many of the other potential boat launch sites around the harbors are either too shallow or have neighbors who won't allow them. Ms. McCrae asked why the Mobi -Mat wasn't deployed during the nor'easter and hurricane at the end of September/beginning of October. Mr. Fronzuto said the Mobi -Mat is also used at Jetties Beach. Ms. McCrae asked that this issue be discussed at the Nov. 3 HSAB meeting and that Ms. Lucey be consulted as to why the Mobi -Mat wasn't used during those storms. Mr. Carlson said one of the recommendations in the Coastal Management Plan is to identify alternate boat ramp sites around the harbors. Mr. Fronzuto suggested using Polpis Harbor as an alternate storm -only emergency hauling ramp for certain sized boats. Ms. McCrae and Dr. Boyce expressed their appreciation for Mr. Fronzuto's presence and extensive knowledge he shared with the HSAB at this meeting and in general for the constructive discussion had on several topics. PUBLIC QUESTIONS AND COMMENT There was no public comment or questions on either of the reports. RECAP and ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING ADJOURN Unanimously approved Future Meetings: Nov. 3 and Nov. 17 Respectfully Submitted, Peter B. Brace, Chairman