04/09/2019 SHELLFISH COMMISSION Minutes

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4.15 Gear Responsibility: The license holder assumes all liability for all gear used on the licensed area. The shellfish aquaculture license holders is responsible for any gear that washes away from the licensed site and shall remove such gear as soon as possible. If gear impeded navigation, the Harbormaster may remove it at the owner's expense. Every licensee shall permanently mark, in a conspicuous place, each shellfish container (bag, cage,tray etc.)used on the licensed site with the licensee's issued color coded tie by the shellfish constable with license number imprinted. Licensee is responsible for purchasing such ties and tagging each individual piece of gear. Commission Comments: York: "An adhesive band that you can imprint would work. We have used them in the past. The tag should just have the grant number issued by the town." Fisher: " I believe that we should also include the last name of the grant holder." York: "That is a lot to put on a tag. What if the grant holder has to make 10,000 pieces of gear? That is too much to put on a tag." Fisher: "I wouldn't be opposed to using a color coding for each grant holder. I can assign them to the current grant holders and any new approved grant holder" Public Comments: Cook: "We should just use color coding instead of imprinting anything." Ronhock: "It would be easier to use color coding. There isn't that many grants in town." 4.16 Gear Removal upon termination of Shellfish Aquaculture License: When a shellfish aquaculture license is discontinued or terminated for any reason,the license holder shall be required to remove all rafts, floats,boxes,pens,boundary markers, and all other equipment from the water and substratum within 60 days from the shellfish aquaculture termination date excluding days in the months of December, January, and February. The Town of Mashpee's Department of Natural Resources, at the expense of the license holder, may recover any and all equipment not removed from the terminated licensed area within the aforementioned time period. All non-recovered gear will be forfeited to the Mashpee Department of Natural Resources. Commission Comments:No comment. 4.17 Harbor improvements; migration of navigational channels: No Licensee shall hold the Town of Mashpee or the Commonwealth of Massachusetts liable for any damages to the licensed areas and gear within as a result of harbor improvements,and/or storm channel marker migration. The Harbormaster will notify each aquaculture licensee of navigational improvements (ie. Dredging projects) occurring 1 year prior to the start date. The Shellfish Constable will re-notify each licensee within 30 days of the intended start date. Commission Comments: York: "The Harbormaster will be the first to notify and then Ashley will re-notify closer to the project date. This will prevent any unforeseen damages." Public Comments: Cook: "The grant holders must be notified. There was a time I wasn't notified and damages occurred." 4.18 Enforcement of Aq_uaculture Regulations: The Harbormaster, Shellfish Constable,Deputy Shellfish Constables, Assistant Harbormasters, and Waterways Assistants shall have the authority to inspect the shellfish aquaculture license area including the contents of any and all rafts,floats, and other containers at any time. The Shellfish Constable shall be allowed to collect samples of shellfish for disease testing after written notification has been sent to the license holder through a certified mail carrier. The notification shall include the date and time that the samples will be taken,the number and species of shellfish to be collected,the tests that will be performed, and the name of the individual or organization conducting the tests.