Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-11-15Nantucket Harbor & Shellfish Advisory Board Minutes of Meeting held Nov. 15 2011 Approved: Conference Room, 2 Fairgrounds Road Call to Order at 4:28 p.m. Members Present: Dr. Peter Boyce, Bill Blount, Wendy McCrae, Peter Brace, Michael Glowacki Members Absent: Bob Rank, Doug Smith Marine Dept: Tara Riley BOS: Whitey Willauer Others: Steve Heck, Matt Herr Approval of Agenda: Unanimously approved. Approval of Minutes: Unanimously approved. Chairman's Report: Dr. Boyce reported he attended the Nov. 2 Board of Selectmen's meeting to represent HSAB's interests in Petrel Landing and said the Selectman Bobby DeCosta told the rest of the BOS that the Nantucket Islands Land Bank's plan for Petrel Landing doesn't work for commercial fishermen and would not support the proposed finger piers and dinghy dock. Mr. Willauer confirmed that the Land Bank removed the finger piers /slips and the dinghy docks from their plan, noting that HSAB should be getting the commercial fishing boat access it needs. He added that Mr. DeCosta is taking the lead on this effort on behalf of HSAB and for the selectmen. Dr. Boyce reported that Mr. Rank was doing well although he had had some chest pains, which his doctor said were the result trying to do too much too soon. Mr. Rank was very, very appreciative of all the help from HSAB and the fundraiser. Eelgrass seed planting: Dr. Boyce reported that he and Mr. Heck with Mr. Heck doing the diving, planted 150 eelgrass seeds in Nantucket Harbor just to the east of the finger pier off the Brant Point boathouse during the second week of November. Marine Department Report: 4:37 p.m. Commercial Season Report: Ms. Riley reported for the first two weeks of commercial scalloping, around 3,400 bushels have been harvested. Seed stranding: She said the Marine Department received a few reports of seed stranding of west of Pocomo and up in Wauwinet, but the scallops are pretty spread out, so she and Mr. Herr are continuing to check and monitor its location. Shellfish Regulations: Ms. Riley presented draft shellfish regulation changes that included wording changes saying that for the free scalloping licenses given to people 60 years old and older, they must be year -round residents of Nantucket and must have proof, and wording for areas closed to shellfishing that explains the penalties for taking shellfish in prohibited areas. Other Items: On the boathouse, she reported that she received a grant from the Great Harbor Yacht Club, so Ms. Riley will be using that money, 10,152 to build a new algae production system and she is ordering it now, and will be assembling it in late February. The grant comes from an annual contribution of $35,000 for 10 years from the GHYC to harbor research project as part of a court settlement between the club and 10 scallopers who sought compensation from the club for destroying part of the harbor and its eelgrass to build its piers and moor some of its boats. Ms. Riley announced that she had been chosen by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution to help it with a shellfish hatchery project in Zanzibar, Tanzania off the east coast of Africa. Ms. Riley said she would be helping to teach women from six villages how to raise and sell oysters and clams. She'll be gone from Dec. 9 to Feb. 15 and her trip would be good for her work on Nantucket in that it's collaboration with WHOI and that it's timely because this is her slow time of the year. Ms. Riley reported that she'd be taking a leave of absence from her job. Dr. Boyce proposed the following change to the draft shellfish regulation changes under family licenses "or in an area defined as closed by the state of Massachusetts, the Board of Selectmen or the marine superintendent ". Mr. Glowacki asked if these regulation changes had to be approved at Town Meeting and Dr. Boyce replied that they do, but that HSAB must first recommend them to the selectmen who would then put them into an article. Ms. McCrae made a motion encompassing Dr. Boyce's proposed change. Dr. Boyce seconded her motion and the board voted unanimously to approve it. Dr. Boyce asked if the board wanted to add the word "year- round" to the 60 and over free license language change. Mr. Glowacki said town council would have to check the language anyway before it's written into a Town Meeting article. Dr. Boyce said "resident" says it all. Mr. Brace said that the same language used for getting a commercial scalloping license would likely be used in this instance. The board agreed not to change the language of this part of the shellfish regulations changes. Old Business: 4:50 p.m. Aquaculture Application - Simon Edwardes: Ms. Riley said she got an aquaculture application from Mr. Edwardes in September who wants two acres of Pocomo Meadows adjacent to where Steve Bender's oyster farm is just outside Polpis Harbor to grow oysters on the bottom. She added the board's endorsement of Mr. Edwardes' application would really help his plans to grow oysters and that he's been extremely cooperative with and helpful to the Marine Department during oyster studies in 2010. He rebuilt one of boathouse's floating upweller systems for free. Ms. McCrae made a motion to accept Mr. Edwardes' application and to approve Ms. Riley's recommendation for his application to be forwarded on to the BOS. Mr. Brace seconded Ms. McCrae's motion. Dr. Boyce asked that if Mr. Edwardes application is approved by the selectmen and the state would there be any space left at Pocomo Meadows for more aquaculture plots. Ms. Riley said yes and that Mr. Edwardes and Mr. Bender would be happy to accommodate the town if it needed space for its projects. HSAB voted unanimously to approve Ms. McCrae's motion. Ms. McCrae thanked Mr. Edwardes for his efforts. Dr. Boyce also thanked Mr. Edwardes for his help around the boathouse. Mr. Willauer asked where the oyster seed comes from. Ms. Riley replied that all oyster farmers on island get their seed from certified disease -free hatcheries approved by the state. Mr. Willauer asked why native Nantucket oysters aren't used and Ms. Riley replied that there isn't enough native stock oysters on Nantucket. She added eventually Nantucket will be able to grow enough of its own oyster seed to supply aquaculture farmers. And she said that she is currently testing the water quality of Sesachacha Pond to determine if it can be used for aquaculture. Petrel Landing: See Chairman's Report. Seed stranding update Mr. Herr said he's been contact with all the usual people who help rescue see during after a blow and they're all going to be in contact with Mr. Herr during the next storm, will be walking beaches to look out for stranded seed and will be in contact with Mr. Herr. Meanwhile, he's working on formalizing a seed stranding team proposal over the next couple of weeks. Mooring systems — schedule discussion: Dr. Boyce said he put this item on the agenda because he wanted to keep the discussion on this going and to at some point, get the mooring companies to attend a HSAB meeting to help the board work through this. Mr. Willauer said he got some complaints about the Nantucket Boat Basin being exempted from mooring. Dr. Boyce explained that other slip areas are being charged mooring fees for slip usage and said Dave Fronzuto could answer Mr. Willauer's question. Mr. Willauer said the yacht clubs collect slip fees from their boat owners and then pay the Marine Department, a system he said should work for the boat basin as well. Mr. Willauer said he would bring this issue up at the next BOS meeting. Mr. Glowacki asked what the mooring fee revenue is used for. Dr. Boyce said it goes toward waterways improvement and maintenance. Mr. Glowacki stated that these fees may not be entirely fair if some boat owners don't use all the services the fees are assessed for. Dr. Boyce replied that all boats use some of the services provided by the town. Mr. Willauer noted that there is no "knowledgeable voice" involved. Mr. Glowacki suggested getting an opinion from town counsel and added that if inequities are found, then there are a bunch of boaters out there not paying a fair share of the fees. New Business: Scallop boat prices: Mr. Blount decried the drop in price down from $12 to $8 and said it was an insult to Ms. Riley and all the work she's done. He accused three island fishmongers of working together to set the price so they all could get make good money. He added that if there's 60 boats fishing, 45 pounds per five bushels, one third of the guys are getting a double limit and a loss of $4 /pound; and that the loss to the community per day is $152,000 by the boat price being dropped by $4. He said that bay scallop money on Nantucket multiplies 10 times (based on a town study in 1979), a loss of $1,780,000 lost from Nantucket by this recent boat price decrease. Mr. Blount asked if HSAB could examine ways to prevent the buyers from purposely dropping the boat price to their benefit. He added that he's been working with Jeff Henderson on ways to sell groundfish other than to island seafood buyers, but he's been "butting heads" with them and said that he's been threatened by one of them. He suggested trying to get other buyers to come to the island to buy bay scallops from fishermen. Dr. Boyce agreed. Mr. Blount said health inspections could be a problem because they're only done twice a year. He suggested maybe repealing the town or state law requiring ownership of a place of business to buy scallops. Mr. Herr recommended that the commercial scallopers get organized before tackling this issue, which comes up every season, and he added that they need to be so organized that they could refuse to fish on given day as show of solidarity let the fishmongers know they won't be bullied with low prices, and also create their own buying situations. Mr. Herr said the fishermen needed to be organized enough to find new buyers, but also to not fish in order to make the price go up. He guessed that there may some collusion between the island buyers to keep the boat price low. Mr. Blount said he knows of such buyers in New Bedford who would be willing to pay up to $20 a pound for bay scallops. Mr. Brace asked how upset the fishermen are. Mr. Herr said some are more upset than others. Mr. Brace said that if this is such a crisis, why haven't the fishermen organized by now and taken action? Ms. McCrae said that historically, the price always opens low and that after Thanksgiving it tends to go up. Mr. Blount admitted that the price is going to rebound and Mr. Herr agreed, saying that in a couple weeks, the scallops would be scarce and scallopers would be working much harder to get them. Dr. Boyce said he didn't think it was HSAB's job to organize the fishermen, but he added that the board could explore regulation on shanty ownership in relation to buyers. Mr. Blount reiterated the importance of getting new, younger buyers to establish relationships with scallopers, but Mr. Herr said a danger is that if any of these new buyers can't make it, scallopers that sell to them might not be welcomed back by Nantucket's buyers. But Mr. Herr admitted that it could work if enough scallopers got together, found a buyer and secured a shanty to work out of. Dr. Boyce repeated this is not a discussion for HSAB but that it would only really work if Ms. Riley's efforts continue to be successful. Ms McCrae stated that when she was chairperson of HSAB, she would try to keep the board's discussion away from the boat price, but she said this particular situation sounded like a monopoly and that something should be done to address it. Mr. Blount said there is price - fixing, mixing of scallops and a price drop passed onto the fishermen, and mislabeling. Mr. Brace said these things might be solved by branding Nantucket's scallops. Going forward, Mr. Blount said he would discuss possible solutions with Mr. Henderson. Mr. Herr said research on this idea, organizing the fishermen and working with NSA is the only way this would get done. And then once a proposal is created, Mr. Herr said the fishermen should come back to HSAB for its endorsement. Recap and Items for Next Meeting: Dr. Boyce said he would be speaking with Mr. Fronzuto about the shellfish regulations, the mooring system discussion and what his position in on charging the boat basin slip fees. Adjournment: 5:36 p.m. Unanimous. Next Meetings: December 6 and 20, 2011 Respectfully submitted, Peter B. Brace, Secretary