11/15/2016 SHELLFISH COMMISSION Minutes

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��'4o0.4ona.¢okraa �,� Town of Mashpee ' Shellfish Commission 16 Grew Neck Road North . m Mashpee, MA 02649 G°'' MINUTES OF MEETING 11-15-16 Attendance: Peter Thomas, William Holmes, Brian Everett, Marcus Hendricks, Stephen Marques and Richard York Public: Thomas Smith, Nicholas Smith and Sam Houghton (Mashpee Enterprise) Convene Meeting: 7;00 PM Approval of Minutes 05-10-16 Approved by unanimous vote. Public Comment: Approval of Minutes: Motion to approve minutes from 5-10-16 was made by York and seconded by Everett. Vote: unanimous for approval. Shellfish Constable's Report: July 2016 was the first full month of the new Mashpee Department of Natural Resources (DNR) after officially being established June 27. Transition from the Police Department went smoothly. The office remained at the Police Department pending completion of the new office in Town Hall. Shellfish Constable Richard York was appointed Acting Director. Assistant Harbormaster Richard Santangelo was acting Harbormaster until permanent Harbormaster Alec Turner was hired on July 25. Vacant Waterways Assistant positions have not been filled including one due to the promotion of Ashley Harrigan to be the new Shellfish and Water Quality Technician. ,The DNR moved into the new office in Town Hall on October 31. It is working out very well. Scallop season opened October 1 with only a few bushels harvested from Waquoit Bay and none elsewhere. That was about it for the season. This was an extreme decline from the harvest in Waquoit Bay last year when 700 bushels were landed at the Seconsett Island Causeway alone. The problem was that Falmouth and Mashpee did not release seed scallops for this year because they were not available from the hatcheries. This demonstrates that scallops are not self-sustaining and seeding is needed annually. We should be able to get scallop seed next year. On October 10, all waters in Mashpee and other Towns were closed to the harvest of shellfish except scallops (assuming that people only eat the scallop muscle) by the DMF due to a bloom of potentially toxic algae occurring from Maine to Rhode Island. This was the first sheilfishing closure in Mashpee due harmful algae. DMF found blooms in Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound. Some species of the algae named Pseudo-nitzschia produce domoic acid toxin causing amnesic shellfish poisoning in people eating shellfish that filtered them from blooms. This is the first recorded bloom of Pseudo-nitzschia in Shellfish Commission Meeting 11-15-16 Page 1