4/12/2016 SHELLFISH COMMISSION Minutes

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transferred to new floating upweller systems planned in Little River. One system will be anchored in the river, and another will be under the floats of the Town Dock at Little River. After growing larger (up to an inch), the plan is to plant 4.5 million seed in Great River, and another 4.5 in Jehu Pond. (One million seed will be planted in the usual areas of good bottom throughout the estuaries as usual.) The CWNMP calls for the purchase of large (1") quahog seed that we purchase and plant when received. The plan now (adaptive management) is to purchase and grow very small seed to avoid the risk from a new quahog disease that has been identified in Cape Cod Bay. The very small seed is spawned from disease-free adult quahogs (local stock), and grown in filtered water in the hatchery. Large seed is grown in the wild. We do not have the disease in Mashpee. Ten million 1" seed cost $450,000, and ten million small (2 mm) seed cost $90,000, so we will be saving $350,000 on seed this year. The cost of electricity, labor, and the amortized cost of new upwellers is relatively small. At full implementation, the savings would be over a million dollars a year. Mashpee River and Shoestring Bay (SC20) . Oyster seed — 4,480 bags of oyster seed set on shell (remote set) are on order from the ARC hatchery for delivery in June. Our oyster project in the Mashpee River continues with 2,480 bags of seed to be grown in trays. Funds from the October 2015 Town Meeting are being used to purchase 2,000 of the bags, and funds from Barnstable County Cooperative Extension are funding the other 480 bags. The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe is funding 2,000 bags of oyster seed for a new project to create an acre of restored oyster beds in Shoestring Bay with funds from an EPA Healthy Communities Grant award to the Tribe's Natural Resources Dept. Implementation Schedule 2016 — Described above. 2017 — Increase facilities and seeding. After the seed purchases in 2016, there will be $135,000 remaining from the seed funds allocated at the October 2015 meeting which will be used for seed purchases in 2017. More funding for implementation is in the Fiscal Year 2017 budget approved by the Board of Selectmen and Finance Committee for May 2016 Town Meeting. Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has funding from EPA for another acre of oyster restoration in Shoestring Bay in 2017. 2018 — Full implementation if funding appropriated at May 2017 Town Meeting. Shelfishery Management Plan The management plan is closed area rotation: Areas are seeded and closed to shellfishing for up to 3 years. New areas are seeded and other areas opened for harvest annually. The Board of Selectmen close and open areas for shellfishing. Mashpee Shellfish Commission minutes 4-12-16 Page 2