Conant calls for off island scallop seed production and partial harbor closures
BY PETER B. BRACE
Town Biologist Keith Conant is recommending that the Marine & Coastal Resources Department send Nantucket bay scallops to an offisland hatchery to produce one million scallop seed.

Town Biologist Keith Conant: "We really have to take some steps to do something to bolster our scallop fishery right now."

Combined with Conant's other recommendation that certain portions of the harbors be closed for the remainder of the commercial scalloping season, producing seed off island is designed to strengthen what he believes to be declining populations of scallops in Nantucket's harbors.

Conant made these recommendations at last week's meeting of the Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board. "I think we have to look at some proactive measures for stabilizing the fishery by boosting the biomass and in general, looking out for not just the fishery, but the fishermen," said Conant.

Conant noted that because most scallopers and the town would neither acknowledge nor act on his recommendation that nub scallops - those scallops with miniscule growth rings Conant believes are not mature and therefore have not spawned - not be harvested, that off island seed production and partial closures are the best solutions right now.

Though some members were more reluctant than others, SHAB is likely to act on Conant's recommendations sooner than later despite some members' concerns about scallop diseases being brought back to island waters by hatchery-produced seed.

"I think if you developed a plan for growing the hatchery seed out and bringing disease-free seed to the island, then it's worth a shot," said SHAB member Ken Kelley, who cautioned that a grow-out plan should be in place before Nantucket sends brood stock to an off-island hatchery.

However, not everyone is as receptive to Conant's idea as is Kelley.

The Nantucket Shellfish Association is opposing hatcheryraised scallop seed because it does not want to run the risk of putting the fishery in danger.

"Because of the concerns about a) the bio-security - both from disease and from parasites - of any seed raised in waters away from Nantucket and b) the ability to oversee and monitor grow-out of the seed when it is returned to Nantucket, the Association opposes propagating seed stock in an off-island hatchery until such bio-security can be reasonably assured and a grow-out plan adopted," said the Shellfish Association in its Jan. 16 letter to SHAB.

SHAB member Patty Stolte shares some of the NSA's concerns.

"Looking at this complication of risk associated with seed importation, if we're concerned about diseases entering the harbor, I don't think that's the only problem," said Stolte. "If we're going to look at preventing our shellfish from being diseased, then I think we have to look at the whole picture."

The rest of the picture, according to Stolte, includes boats coming into Nantucket's harbors from distant waters encrusted with growth that may contain diseases unknown to Nantucket.

Kelley also noted that SHAB, Conant and the Marine Department do not fully understand all the causes of the decline of the scallop fishery, including unexplained mortalities in Madaket Harbor.

Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto assured SHAB and the NSA that the state's hatcheries produce clean, disease-free shellfish.

"We've shipped brood stock off several different times under several different grants and got two shipments of 250,000 scallops and one shipment of 300,000 scallops and to my knowledge, we never got any diseased scallops back," said Fronzuto.

If SHAB decides to hatch scallops off island, Conant said the seed should come back at least 10 millimeters in size so the scallops can survive predators such as crabs and continue to grow to a harvestable size. This would negate the need for prolonged grow-out in floating upwellers in the harbors.

After a brief discussion on partial closures of the harbors and the realization that fewer than six scallopers are still fishing, Fronzuto suggested making some exploratory dredge tows to find seed location that could be cordoned off.

SHAB member Matt Herr suggested asking scallopers to report where they saw seed as they come in to get their licenses for the next season.

Either way, Conant urged SHAB to formulate a plan to protect the fishery.

"We really have to take some steps to do something to bolster our scallop fishery right now," said Conant. "Die off could also be attributed to some type of predation that we may not have paid that much attention to; there's lots of ducks out there that eat juvenile shellfish. I could go on and on and on about what the factors are, but I just think we need to take some steps to try to save

this fishery." I