Shellfish Conservation Committee - Regular Meeting

David Hi how are you um before we start this is the comprehensive plan survey um NL M's doing and so they'd like to hear from as many people as possible you can do it online if you don't want the hard I did it online oh okay I can do it again how many how many vs can I I know you can be I don't know okay uh we're recording so anytime you guys start all right so I guess we could also sorry before we start this is Evan hi and Evan is my new deputy and so he's gonna be doing these meetings but I'm gonna do them with him before transition before we hand off everything exciting I'm excited now you can start um yeah so uh it looks like we have enough people here so call the order 52 p.m. motion yeah um and then uh I guess approval of minutes from last meeting and roll call we do have enough for Forum right yes you did okay make a motion to approve minutes all in through minutes last time looks like it passed um we don't have a warden doesn't look like it you heard from anybody no I haven't we do have a warden though yeah the only Warden we have for Town Mount dessert is

Adam thir right yeah har master um I spoke to David KS uh the other day about that so say anything uh he said that they're um they they're still in the midst of trying to uh fully staff themselves at the PD for bar mon desert uh they should be there really soon once they do then hopefully he can um get some officers interested and taking the training and so and so on and we talked about actually um if there's any any of us or anybody that we know that aren't officers that are interested in doing it taking the training and stuff and uh I said yeah sure when is it and then I guess the training was this today yeah this week so um it's only once a year I believe the end of March so it will be a a further discussion for us um anyone's interested somebody else so but that's that's where we left it um we would connect again about it but as of right now like I said Adam thst's the only shelfish W for the town ofert and then I forget what he said the name was for the gentleman of AR you might know no not him Chris I know resources are thin for but you would think that it would be a that would be a nice excuse to get out out of the normal routine and might be a benefit to have some type of shore work or training eventually so that's something I guess we'll continue to revisit and hope we make progress on um and I guess we'll just move right

along here and um we have state update written down here um I had one of pick your take your pick flu for the fisherman's Forum so I wasn't able to attend for the whole weekend but I didn't know if DMR had anything on that update from the fisherman's Forum to mention Hannah uh to be honest with you I mean I I'm probably not prepared to give specifics I mean it was um there was discussions on updates on Research uh with Dr B and the Down East Institute there was some presentations on you know Green crabs uh some of it to do with um you know studying effects and some of it was to do to look at more of applying it to um food items and restaurants and stuff like that I guess which essentially might lead to markets um and uh you know there was the poster session at the end of the day that showcased a lot of current research um it was pretty well attended did always a storm like there is every year um I see fewer and fewer clam diggers but there was several people from shellfish programs that attended um from up and down the coast I can't think of anything you know overly you know stands out beyond that right now Chris Peterson was I was able to attend the shelfish day last year with a friend of mine who's a harvester and Chris was standing and they start early like in the morning like 8 or something and Chris was standing right at the door like with a checklist like pretty much checked our name off as we scurried in the door but I had a pretty legitimate excuse to not make it and I was pretty bummed to not make it but um yeah

so um did you have anything on The Landings report for 24 were you going to go over any of that quickly or uh I can just tell you guys unfortunately you guys are confidential every year so you know your Town's listed in the report but there's no you know essentially there's nothing associated with it um you know it's gener value is holding pretty strong in general across you know across Statewide you know there's ups and downs depending upon where you are in the state and uh Landing numbers um are definitely still looking low and looking low in hancott county and Statewide um if there's anything particular you guys wanted to go over you know we could um but yeah unfortunately your guys's numbers are just confidential you don't have the the dealers and Harvesters to hit the mark yeah and we haven't we haven't really participated any seating projects or anything here or anything too fancy like that at all um so I don't know if we just want to move on all right we'll uh move on to Old business and I see none presented um would are we're going to move into new business would be what we worked on okay any comments David any discussion on new old business anything before we move on no not at all all right so we'll just move on to that new business that [Music] um Claire and um Evan and I um quickly worked on went through the allocation

plan for 25 we didn't really have any major changes we did um make sure our information was as up toate and accurate we just made a very few small changes on things I don't know if you had any comment or anything um no so I did include in your packet the proposed uh shellfish license allocation plan for 2025 um so I guess we just need to make a motion and a vote on that if and so that I can submit that good have I I don't really is there do we feel a huge need to change at this time if you don't ask I don't it's just it's a large amount for yeah pretty much zero resource yeah um any thoughts on that Brian um for changing the allocation um I don't see any I don't see anything that's you didn't sell that many licenses I mean you you did sell three to nonresidents after the 90day period I believe last year um that would have been 24 that wouldn't have been that would have been but on last year's report yeah so and I think you've gotten two so far this year the two of you right oh so you you did pick it up I did okay great whoops well I would make a motion to maintain status quo for the allocation plan for licenses maintain the same number for 25 do you do you remember off the top of your head how many Recreation you saw there was there was somewhat of a presence it seemed

like right here in our report for the for the calendar year 24 that's on the hours Adam where is it I got one a r license oh it's on the last page says um resident recreational we sold 12 please good we had we sold eight sold eight sold eight resident recreational we sold three resident commercial one nonresident yeah one of the recreational was made it matters yeah Pro for thought though at least our subtotal for our funds keeps going up every year but something to think about using using that for something that was another thing I spoke to d k about was the ward and stuff yeah about if there's lack of budget or timing anybody interested don't know how that crossover would work but anyway um yeah I think you're right we should just keep the license and Status Quo andure the numbers I don't see any reason why we need to change anything right now so I have a motion so a second okay all right so a motion um so the motion is to maintain stas bow the same number for 25 it's been seconded um all those in favor it's unanimous but I did something to um consider if our numbers continue to stay low might be something we might want to look at in the future about the future and you found

that you found that to be going on qu in quite a few towns as you told us at the Frenchman's Bay meeting r that you're having a lot of times with a lot of leftover licenses correct uh there have been a few towns down in the mid Coast that have limited license sales um that have had some leftover resident licenses it's quite a few though really well some it's different some towns might have one or two left over and other towns um are having larger numbers because of you know a resource decline they're having harder time selling their limited limited licenses not the only Town that's can has to eventually consider because of our climate change reduction in our licenses because I see it that a lot of a lot of the clams harvested in the state now are from Harvesters that are putting in twice the amount of time than they have in the last few years to maintain the amount that they're harvesting that's that's the way I see it so they're just trying it's not that the the these towns are keeping up with with the same amount of harvest every year they're working way harder to try to maintain it it's just more and more Harvesters in Tighter and Tighter areas because of lack of resources and in the next few years you're going to see a real big drop in the glamland because it's finally going to catch up with everybody to jump around a little bit Brian did you see what was the total in the um in the treasure in the uh 18,000 8,45 we should come up and like DMR had

mentioned in the past it's kind of unique situation to have that those funds um I think we should brainstorm independently or together on try to come up with a productive way not to spend money just to spend money to either support something existing or to to do something um whether it be to support Patrol um resource management or enhancement um I just think we should show that we oh yeah um have you know have a have a good way to utilize those funds I think we're fortunate to have them I don't have that answer at all I don't off the talk I don't have anything but I think it would be a good discussion to have and to try to put something um in practice even if it was uh coordinating with the uh Harbor committee on something or or some I don't know how funds work that way but it seems like we have kind of common interest with the other um you know stakeholders with the with the fishery type thing and the and the shellfish Harvest so whether it's seaing or something like that yeah that would be that would be you know that would be a really good goal that' be a Hands-On thing that even if it wasn't like the ultimate Pinnacle of success it might be just good to have a Hands-On thing that people can see and maybe participate in that aren't on the committee or something I mean even that might have some some value and some awareness of right maybe maybe potentially do something for seating maybe in a location that's easy access you know say right down here inth East or something like that just to see how how successful is not to open a can of worms but did you see anything about a some type of temporary closure

that occurred in the harbor recently in the past two right here yeah you know anything about that Hannah an overflow or something with something something failed with some water recent yeah did that would be a I could be wrong question for David probably yeah I haven't I haven't kept up with that if if it's happened I've missed it I guess I haven't I don't think it was a massive thing but it might have been a short term like something you hear that on the hotline or just um someone that does another Harvester that keeps that we know that keeps really oh yeah active he he mentioned it and it affected a portion of the of this cve yeah I don't think it was a long you know just a broken silver bike or something it would have to be something like that that's good question for Dave I call yeah it might be worth just yeah that stuff happens usually it's just short a queue it will fix itself or somebody has to fix it but they have to that's one of the testing site so obviously a number popped up and I wondered why if we ever did go as far as to get into with any type of seed program would this upper Hardware be any type of C yeah I agree 100% because you need a place it's enforceable it can't be out of the way because just poke is going to wait for the time and the moment yeah right exactly do like eggs in a basket if it had any success growing the fox into the house yeah true I wonder I mean do a couple of different sites you can do this and potentially Gil Patrick Cove even though that's still still not open but I think last time we talked about it numbers were trending really well about potentially open that up so so Patrick

was closed main reason is I thought it was I wanted because I thought that was why weish pipes sing down here yeah I'm just thinking easy access proceeding easy access monitoring as would go yeah Gil get to theore my father said he stomped around Gil Patrick's must have been this fall he said he didn't really see much a lot like in the mud it didn't not that you do grow yeah turn turn the mud yeah I watched through generations up at G Mo I dug him because other people can have no question last years they the dam CS in the seaweed K them if you don't is what you lose don't see going on that's happening and I have no doubt of it because I was just harvesting yesterday high up on the shoreline and was Finding ribbon worms that look like spaghetti not in the mud way down this is halfway up the shoreline so is that kind of a new observation that they're kind of up higher than they were in the fast maybe yeah because since even the wormed dgas have corroborated this with me that what's been going on since the worms have eaten all the plams in the mud what's left the worms they've gone after the blood and the sand worms so they're also slaughtering the the Marine Harvester worm Harvesters living as well do you do you require do you anecdotally recall those ribbon worms

being around you know decades ago is that a this they're like like Anna mentioned they are they're they're sick they tend to come into an I never got a one these are they're flat like a ribbon and they be this long and go seen went the stable something that I didn't see you know when you dig a clam that's dyed in the mud and it falls out of shell and stinks if it's standing dead yeah that's a wor goes have gone right through it and just eaten the good parts and on going and that that very well could be what happened to Gil pck Cole because I was in there two or three years ago and there was a good supply of Clans in the in the area of the mud and if they got in there they would have slaughtered that Cove it would take a couple flips to confirm iter who for thought it's too bad I wonder what they taste like they techically poison if you feed them to seagull they will throw it up they don't eat they'll eat them greedily food but then all of a sudden he was it yeah the salive is literally poisonous the mucus on their skin is there do we have anything on the um DMR annual report at all for 24 that needs to be mentioned Hann is there anything at all I just I think you guys sub submitted the report didn't you clear oh no you guys were going to submit the report tomorrow so it's due April 1 so you guys are all set and um the only other thing is the is the be the license allocation and then you guys will be all all good for the year as far as the Department's concerned yeah so your your last item here really is the review of the annual report and if you guys are okay with it I'll submit it tomorrow or Evan will

submit it tomorrow have you had a chance to oh I'll submit it no big changes in that do you recall any significant changes not really at all only like we took like a date or address or something Warden off yeah there was very minimal changes so regards to what the annual report like what we did a couple two years ago seems to be all right that's that's fine just okay well David says it looks like there's nothing too scary on there so so do we want to approve that is what that we're working on so I'd make a motion to approve the 2024 annual report is a second like all in favor very good um do we have any other business at all not present but I think you should definitely put on the agenda for our next meeting what you talking about yeah yeah definitely just a quick question about the money that so the town can't touch that that is specifically oriented to the shelfish m that 18,000 it's uh in the budget allocated to the the shelfish committee and so I don't you know I'm not a Treasurer or and I think it's kind of operates under the police yeah budget so I don't know the ins and outs of how you what you have to do to spend it and what you can spend it on but and again yeah not to try to spend it spend money for the but also I think there might have been murmurs of like since it's been Laten for a while there's other departments that had interest possibly in accting I was bringing this so that's why I think maybe if we were

to uh coordinate with another you know overlapping um agency of some kind um or or find you know a very productive use for it for our um shellfish thing um oh yeah that's that's absolute thing we should prioritize for the next meeting PRI definitely been aing that's for sure yeah so that's a priority is to uh find uh something very constructive and tangible that we can do with a you know some of those funds to show that we are serious about and appreciate having them sad thing is see seeding unless unless everything is perfect and goes perfect fails yeah my heart's not set totally on 100% doing a seating it could be anything I know Hannah may have a different opinion but I've done this times over the last 30 years the boxes yeah that's that's another thing that the clan boxes see we've lost Chris Chris has retired so he's the Peterson Dr Peterson was a lot of the motivator for that so he brought me over a whole staff of screen boxes that I was supposed to carry on with and we can see how far I've gotten with them so well we got a little disheartened when we went to get the ones at Otter Creek and the one we had all that huge wind and storms and there was like lobster traps in hanging from the trees and we like we're not going to find these little boxes know forget that yeah I was looking like up in the apple trees beond the surf line thinking they were so light maybe they got thrown up there but no we we so we did find the ones inside that go but we didn't find the ones outside because we want to see the comparison inside and out but yes we we do need to engage and do a little bit more that I think that along with just um trying to identify what we're going to do for more wardens for the town yeah even though it's not a huge even though

it's not a problem right now and it's not a huge resource for it things change the last thing we need is not have any Ward so well that's that's that for sure is really the the top priority without enforcement if you God forbid the resource bounces back which I don't expect ever but if it did in a few areas and we we can't we can't Patrol it and keep an eye on it it's as good as dead Y no I think it's a asset for the for the enforcement departments too to have have to sometimes engage with I mean we do live on an island and we have a lot of Shore and I've seen sometimes they don't have the right equipment and are not used to it so any type of like um engagement with having you know going on a boat or doing some type of troll like that in an emergency situation I think would be quite a benefit to them even if it was no not shellfish related at all so that's just kind of one of the side thoughts I had on that Hannah a question for you um do you know of any other towns in the state that have any shellfish wardens that are just regular civilians regular just residents of the Town yeah Dr Stonington Brooklyn you know there's lots of towns excuse me that have um uh just you know somebody somebody person that basically can just P that passes the regular background check for marine violations um with no law enforcement experience okay are are any of those are they all strictly just you know civilian residents or any of them um have another Connection in the town with comes to employment whether they're like a part-time code enforcement agent or Harbor Master or anything like that yeah I mean all of the above that happens it's different for every single town and there are some towns that do it with the

code enforcement the animal control um the Harbor Master position um the Frenchman Bay they do a contract um with um somebody who has law enforcement background and training um but he's not technically a town employee a contract um and then there are other towns that contract with the the the county sheriff's office so it runs the whole um you know gam from fullblown law enforcement to somebody that can pass the regular you know Marine violation background right off the street you know like Ray per she doesn't have any law enforcement background at all and she covers three towns um in Hancock County and what is is she paid by those three towns yeah yeah they pay her she's a she's an employee of each one of those towns um I know in the past the position was tied to the Harbor Master and that didn't work out and they they cut it off um they tried it and it didn't work out in Stonington and they've separated the position since so it's strictly just a shellfish Warden position and there's no law enforcement required for that okay yeah watch you have you have Harvesters shelfish Harvest that are War have gone for Warden positions right uh it's very very very uncommon um currently in the past you'd see it a little bit more David but right now it's very it's almost like not occurring anymore it's very rare occasionally you'll see a town that has somebody certified that also holds a commercial license yeah because I know we' discussed it over there because it's good just to have a backup if you're Warden if you're Warden got for bid get sick or something you've got some type of backup I thought about it but Jesus and I guess just a obvious you know

rhetorical question but say like David being a commercial Harvester if he wanted to become shelish water for the town of M desert there's no conflict or interest or any issues with DMR on that part is there no that would totally be a town item we we don't get involved at that level okay thankfully yeah so I mean that was I mean Food For Thought for oh yeah any of the guys here talked about with Karns and you know he talked about you know they have their own budgeting and stuff like that and would work with say if like I want to do it or you want to do it whoever wants to do it then we would communicate um and then I think you know preliminarily conversation we were talking about you know you get compensated for your time and you get a get a a radio want a call sign and all that stuff to be able to communicate in case if there were any issues and not notify the PD that you're heading out doing a patrol etc etc so it's yeah something to think about I mean I know it's something I would definitely be interested in doing if if I knew exactly when the um course is going to be and have much more time to do it um student I any idea what the cost of the course is and I know it's I know that the um um there's part of the law I'm not sure the actual term for the course but it's it's tied to law enforcement type training and it used to be the fee used to be waved but I believe now there's at least a $350 fee or around that area to take at least part of the training to do with the you know you talk about the DMR Warden certification course I'm right yeah yeah because it was a little expense for the 18,000 so that's there yeah any type of training like

that would be an asset yep yeah it's a deterrent the more deterrent I'll tell the better y well we can talk about it next meeting yeah yeah um do we have anything else not unless are we gonna have you next meeting when do we I be here good I will be here and then when I think Evan doesn't need me anymore then you'll set them free well thank you thank you very much uh Hannah for you set a date for another meeting or yeah I just want to thank Hannah for attending and listening to our stories oh no problem sorry I couldn't be there I'm getting over the flu and I don't want to spread any germs around in the rest of the state yeah they say we should do something before the summer and then we'll have one after the summer what do you guys think about that yeah what do you think David man what's uh what what do things look like for as far as logistics for the town for you guys I would say here comes the town meeting do one in April and wait until after town meeting if I had my you can do the day of or the day before town meeting oh okay let's do it yeah let's do that I'll have the election and we'll just have the table right here we'll have the Mee yeah um yeah May would be good because June yeah May would be good because it starts to get busier in June so I would in the May time frame if there's something works away okay so usually we meet on Thursdays [Music] so I guess I'm just looking to see if there's any meetings scheduled they're all going to be on a beach somewhere May okay flat mud flats that's what we have for beaches here that's what we do mayor's

Beach um well pretty much anytime in May you want to do later like at the 29th or earlier I'd be yeah going to start cranking com May okay and that would give us a chance if we had to cancel we could push it maybe if we had to so so we could we're going to be very tired but we could do it May 8th um because the town meetings May 5th and 6th but we could do eighth or um what's the following week well the following week is the 15th and um actually eth eth the 15th I have an appointment but if you're just taking notes from brainstorming session I don't see why yeah I don't think see we have any big issues unless something crazy pops up unless a bunch of like rap scall and clam diggers come down from the north and send up on our yeah it sounds like it's just pretty much a brainstorming session so you guys seem nice so yeah we're we're pretty easy to get along with unless we actually have an issue to fight over so 15 May 15 5 well we're going to do the 15th 5 yes not the 8 May 15 5: PM sounds good all right I make a motion to adjourn my second all those in favor thank you good night guys thank you thank you very much well thank you for wanting to take over the r from her I know that yeah I know she's got her hands supposed to I'm happy to get in and start doing it so you back up back up to a four person staff now yeah right back to a four person back to a four person staff

now no oh R is this everybody I just took over from Jennifer Jennifer two uh two deputies and one easier that way a bunch of different interests you need you know what and they want to uh I still recording oh let's see please pause was anybody online today I didn't see any