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