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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