HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-2-7Nantucket Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board
Minutes of Meeting held Feb. 7, 2012
Approved:
Conference Room, 2 Fairgrounds Road
Call to Order at 4:30 p.m.
Members Present: Bill Blount, Dr. Peter Boyce, Wendy McCrae, Michael Glowacki,
Peter B. Brace, Bob Rank
Members Absent: Doug Smith
Marine Dept: Dave Fronzuto
BOS: Whitey Willauer
Others: Lindsay Pykozs
Approval of Agenda:
Unanimously approved
Approval of Minutes:
Unanimously approved
Chairman's Report:
Update on funding — too late for ATM
Dr. Boyce reported that it's too late to get an article on the warrant for Town Meeting to
get town funding for the water quality program. Mr. Fronzuto said if there's a special
town meeting later in the year, then an article could go on that. He suggested that the
article be written and vetted by town counsel so it's for ready for a special town meeting
or the annual one in 2013.
Marine Department Report: Dave Fronzuto
Commercial Season Report
Mr. Fronzuto reported that as of Feb. 3, 15,318 bushels had been landed. He added that
he's given two people the day off from taking seed and three people the day off on Feb. 6
for fishing before 6:30 a.m.
Ms. McCrae asked Mr. Fronzuto if these fishermen got the day off immediately or the
day after they were busted. Mr. Fronzuto said the fishermen were not allowed to fish on
Feb. 7.
Dr. Boyce asked for a brief detailing about the gravel barge that sank in front of the SSA
wharf Mr. Fronzuto said that rounding the Tuck 1 buoy, the tugboat- towed, 130 -foot
barge was taking on water because its hatches weren't secure. Coming around Brant
Point, the captain noticed the barge was really heavy and by the time Fronzuto got the
call about this around 9pm on Feb. 2, it was around 50% underwater at the wharf still
loaded with gravel. By the morning, it was 90% submerged. By 3:30 -4pm on Feb. 3, the
barge had been emptied and refloated, and the Coast Guard had inspected. Mr. Fronzuto
said that it was the same barge that flipped over on the bar east of the east jetty the night
there was a bomb scare a few years ago. He added that there was no pollution from this
sinking and no gravel lost into the harbor, and he commended the Toscana Corp, Victor -
Brandon Corp, AGM Marine, the USCG, the SSA port commander and a crane company
for quick mobilization and recovery of the barge. Mr. Brace asked how the water got into
the barge and Mr. Fronzuto said the barge's watertight hatches weren't closed properly.
Old Business:
Water Quality Funding
Mr. Fronzuto said he appreciated HSAB writing a letter of support for his and the board's
effort to get town funding of the water quality program, and for the members who
attended the FinCom meeting on Jan. 24 who commented at this meeting. He added that
this effort has three of the members of the FinCom talking positively about this idea. He
reported that he does have funding for the program this year and that when Tara Riley
gets back from Zanzibar, he and her will write up a request for proposals for sample
analysis. It was done cheaper last year on the Vineyard. Mr. Glowacki said that other
member of the board should attend future FinCom meetings to show unified support for
this effort.
Commercial Shellfish License Fees
Mr. Fronzuto shared requested late -entry license fee data with the board. He reported that
the total number of licenses issued for commercial scalloping was 174. 14 of them were
free to year -round residents 60 and over. Over the years, he said he's had people who
took the free license to check out the fishing and price, and returned to buy the regular
license. Mr. Fronzuto reported that he sold 160 regular licenses and out of that number,
25 were not used, 50 were used occasionally and 45 were used regularly. He said he
issued eight 30 -day delayed -entry permits issued. One of those is used daily, two
occasionally, two three time and three not at all.
Mr. Fronzuto noted that these numbers reveal that scallopers who really need to fish with
late -entry licenses will go, but that those who didn't go or went once in a while had found
fairly shore work. He added that this systems works as intended to by forcing those
fishermen who really want to fish to buy their licenses before the deadline but allowing
late entry for those out of work.
Mr. Blount said that there far fewer people with rigged scallop boats ready to go in their
yards for late entries. Mr. Fronzuto and most of the board agreed that the late -entry fee
system is not being abused.
Dr. Boyce asked this issue could be taken off future agendas. Mr. Rank said increasing
the fee would not contribute very much to the propagation fund and that if it was
increased, it's definitely more about ensuring safe scalloping. Mr. Fronzuto offered that
the voluntary inspections of scallop boats could be made mandatory. Ms. McCrae said
she didn't have any problems with not raising this fee. Mr. Brace reminded the board that
when Matt Herr returned to the island he'll likely want to discuss this issue again.
Shellfish Management Plan
Dr. Boyce said the committee still doesn't know when its next meeting because its
chairman, Mr. Herr isn't back on island yet due to medical issues. In the meantime, the
committee reviewed the comments from the external reviewers. The next draft is going to
be available on Feb. 13 and they will have one more meeting to review that draft and the
priorities assigned to the recommendations.
Article 68 Work Group Report
Dr. Boyce announced that this group would meeting with the selectmen at 4pm at 4FG on
Feb. 9 and noted that latest draft ready and should be available to the public. The Board
of Health regulations have been sent to the Board of Health and at this joint meeting, the
best management practices document will be reviewed. He added the BOH will be
holding a public hearing on the regs and that they would be adopted within the next
month to six weeks.
Tote boxes for seed - strandings
Mr. Willauer told the board that the Nantucket Shellfish Association authorized use of its
funds to buy 100 fish totes at $13 each for this effort. Mr. Blount agreed to transport them
from New Bedford back to Nantucket on the Ruthie B.
Mr. Fronzuto said he had someone drop off some dredges at his office today that they
found in the bushes. Mr. Blount said that one of the Holdgates lost eight dredges, had
their tires flattened and their fuel line cut. He added that the same thing happened to
Hank Garnett.
New Business:
Striped bass — ban on commercial fishing
Dr. Boyce announced that on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at l lam in Hearing Room B 1, there
would be a hearing on several striped bass and scallops bills. He noted that state Senate
Bill 392 is the one to worry about the most because it seeks to ban commercial harvesting
of striped bass, it adds a slot limit, heads must be kept on, recreational fishermen can only
take one fish a day and the violation is $200 with a second violation of $500. The state
quota of commercial striped bass would not be added to the recreational quota. Mr. Brace
asked who these new regulations would be enforced. Dr. Boyce said he didn't know and
acknowledged the difficulty of enforcement. Maybe when charter boats come in.
Ms. McCrae asked how HSAB should be involved this second time around with striped
bass bills. Dr. Boyce said that last year, he sent a letter to Nantucket's representative, Tim
Madden stating that the board opposed the closing of the commercial fishery, supported
limits on recreational fishing of one fish per day, we proposed keeping the size for
commercial fishing as is because the board didn't think the slot limit was beneficial and
the board proposed the state eliminate commercial licenses for non -state residents.
Dr. Boyce said the board's reason for opposing the closing of the commercial fishery was
because according to the National Oceanographic & Atmospheric Administration, the
commercial fishery takes less than one quarter of the total annual harvest, so cutting out
the commercial fishermen was pointless because the commercial guys aren't having that
much of an impact on the overall harvest.
Mr. Rank said that the dead discards of the recreational fishery is about the same as the
total harvest of the commercial fishery. He added that it's sad that this fishery is being
regulated by politicians and not scientists. Mr. Rank offered that there should be a
regulation prohibiting treble hooks, which when swallowed by the bass, kill it because it
rips of their insides and their gills. He recommended using circle hooks because
undersized bass wouldn't be killed and could be released. Quoting state figures, Mr. Rank
said the season was 18 days in 2011 and that up to that year, the state has been steadily
the decreasing the number of fishing day. And although NOAA says there's less fish, Mr.
Rank believes less baitfish and fluctuating water temperatures have forced fish off shore
and he questions the logic of reducing fishing days when the harvest remains below the
quota every year.
Essentially, Mr. Rank said, quoting from various reports, that striped bass population is
healthy and that these latest proposed regulatory changes aren't based in science. He
added that the problem with the proposed slot limit is it cuts out a whole age class where
as the current regulations allows all age classes to live except for those at or above the
size limit. He continued that these proposed regulatory changes further tips the scales in
favor of Rhode Island fishermen who are limited to six fish a day in their waters, but then
can come fish in Massachusetts waters and get the 30 -fish limit as well.
Ms. McCrae recalled that the last time these bills came before the board, it expended a
great deal of effort getting its position heard by relevant people including local and state
politicians such as former Senator Robert O'Leary. Dr. Boyce stated the importance of
individual board members and the board as whole making their voices heard. Mr. Blount
worried if the bills became laws, they could seriously affect the island economy tied to
striped bass.
Dr. Boyce said he'd email everyone contact information for the selectmen and state
officials and that he would email Jake Kritzer, senior scientist in the Oceans Program at
the Environmental Defense Fund because they're working to keep the commercial fishery
open. Dr. Boyce asked if the board trusted him to write a good letter outlining the board's
concerns to be sent to the selectmen and state legislatures. The rest of the board indicated
that it did.
Mr. Rank noted that the last time these bills came up, HSAB held a public hearing to
collect comments from islanders. The board agreed without voting that it would not hold
a special meeting, that it would trust Dr. Boyce to write an appropriate letter and that
individual members would call their state legislators to voice their opposition to these
bills on behalf of HSAB.
Mr. Fronzuto recommended that the board vote to send the letter to the selectmen and get
it to them by Feb. 15. Ms. McCrae made that motion. The board voted unanimously to
have Dr. Boyce write this letter and get it to the BOS.
Mr. Blount reiterated that shutting down the commercial striped bass fishery would
exclude the non - fishing public from dining on striped bass.
Adjournment: 5:44 p.m.
Unanimously approved
Next Meetings:
February 7 and 21, 2012
Respectfully submitted,
Peter B. Brace, Secretary