How much is too much?
Overfishing of Hummock Pond threatens yellow perch and American eel populations
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Yellow perch and American eels are being pulled out of Hummock Pond at what some residents along the pond say is an alarming rate.

Steve O'Brien of Tautemo Way on Hummock Pond said that last summer he started seeing large numbers of people in canoes, skiffs and kayaks, as well as on shore, fishing in the pond.

According to O'Brien and another pond dweller who wishes to remain anonymous, these fishermen arrive in SUVs at Bartlett Landing via a dirt road running off Osprey Way, packing large coolers in which they store their catch. The boats, holding one to three people, head out onto the pond all at once.

"What troubled me most as I watched them through my binoculars was that they appeared to keep all but the tiniest fish and they were throwing them into the cooler," said O'Brien. "It just appeared to me they were being indiscriminate with the size of the fish and the type of the fish; it just appeared to me they were keeping everything they caught."

There are also at least a dozen buoys floating in the pond off this landing that O'Brien said are attached to traps that are packed with eels.

"These same folks are catching all the eels they can," he said. "They could be for personal consumption or they could be selling them to friends and family."

Concerned that these fishermen are cleaning out Hummock Pond of all its fish unchecked, O'Brien contacted Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto and Sgt. Dean Belanger, Nantucket's environmental police officer from the state's Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, but discovered that there is little either can do right now because freshwater pond fishermen are not required to buy fishing licenses and can take as many yellow perch as they like.

"We're actually doing research through the state legislature to see whose jurisdiction this is [because currently], there is no license needed and there is no bag limit on yellow perch," Fronzuto said.

Fronzuto said that he and Belanger are in a holding pattern until they learn from the state what enforcement powers they do have over Nantucket's ponds and their inhabitants.

"We've heard, and to be quite honest I don't know if it's true, but it has something to do with when Nantucket was owned by New York," said Belanger.

Actually, Nantucket has Great Britain to thank for its frontier-like pond fishing. A colonial act in 1693 granted the town of Nantucket and its people "absolute ownership of the ponds," according to Rick Blair's story in the Early Summer 2004 issue of Nantucket Magazine.

Putting an exclamation point on this decree, the act further specifies "the Commonwealth of Massachusetts never had and never can have rights in the ponds of Nantucket."

That act was put to the test in 1954 when island game warden Joseph Hunchard, acting on a directive from the state's Department of Fisheries and Game to enforce the state's fishing laws, busted 20-year-old Arthur Stojak and 17- year-old John Cabral for fishing in Long Pond, according to a story in Nantucket Magazine's Summer 2004 issue.

Both young fishermen were found not guilty because of the act of 1693.

Belanger said there is a catch limit and a license is required for white perch, but that only applies to coastal waters, not ponds. If, however, these fishermen are selling their catch, there are commercial fishing laws that could apply.

"As for commercial, one would have to be permitted to do something like that," said Belanger. "I'm not aware of any situation like that, but if someone has any information that someone is selling these fish, I would certainly like to talk to them."

Town Biologist Keith Conant said that it is safe to eat the yellow perch caught in Hummock Pond and Miacomet Pond, but not for pregnant women because the fish can contain unsafe amounts of mercury. Nantucket Health Inspector Richard Ray said that the state has not issued any advisories to his office this year but has done so in past years when samples of freshwater fish feces did reveal unsafe levels of mercury, forcing Ray to post warning signs around the island's ponds. He added the state usually does its testing on Nantucket in mid-July.

American eels, however, are another can of worms.

To harvest American eels on Nantucket, one must obtain a shellfish license from the Marine & Coastal Resources Department at a cost of $25 for Nantucket residents and $100 for non-residents. Licensed eel trappers can take 50 eels per day all year long, but they can be no shorter than sixand a-half inches in length.

Belanger said that Nantucket is likely to experience more eel trapping because the price per eel, which striped bass fishermen use for live bait, is now $2.75.

Both O'Brien and his neighbor stressed that they are not out to keep people from fishing in Hummock Pond, they just want to protect the natural resources within it for all to enjoy.

"I think if someone wants to go fishing and catch his dinner, I don't want to rain on his parade, but we thought this was something new and it wasn't something that was in line with recreational enjoyment; it went from recreational to commercial," said the anonymous pond dweller. "There's no way that with the number of fish they caught they were bringing them home

to their families." I