Regulation of island freshwater fishing still up in air
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
For Hummock Pond and its disappearing yellow perch and American eel populations, no news is bad news.

Since being alerted to the potential overfishing of yellow perch and American eel stocks in Hummock Pond, Sgt. Dean Belanger, Nantucket's environmental police officer from the state's Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, said this week that he has yet to learn from the state whether he can exercise any control over the large groups of people fishing in Hummock Pond.

Last summer, several property owners along Hummock Pond were alarmed to discover what they believed to be a deliberate harvest of yellow perch and American eels from the pond. Pond dweller Steve O'Brien of Tautemo Way said he began seeing several boats at a time with two or three people in them launching from Bartlett's Landing and catching and keeping all the fish they caught. Arriving in SUVs and vans, these freshwater fishermen, who were storing their catch in large coolers, may also have set out about 10 eel traps, which O'Brien said were packed with American eels when raised.

Worried that one of the island's great salt ponds was being fished out, O'Brien contacted Sgt. Belanger and Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto to see how they might help, but to date, neither Belanger nor Fronzuto have heard anything from the state on how to proceed.

Fronzuto said that members of his Marine & Coastal Resources Department staff have been out on Hummock Pond and did pull up one of the eel traps, finding just five eels.

O'Brien said he was aware of several Nantucketers who may have set the traps to collect eels to use as live bait to catch striped bass, a practice that is allowed for those possessing recreational shellfish permits.

"I was told that some of the eel traps set on the pond were not set by the people [we're concerned about] on the pond, but were set by Nantucketers who wanted to catch a few eels to catch striped bass with and if that were the case, then I would be all right with that," he said.

The permit, available at the Marine & Coastal Resources Department for $25 for residents and $100 for non-residents, allows the bearer to take 50 eels per day 365 days a year.

No such regulations govern the fish in Nantucket's ponds. Currently, Nantucket is a sovereign island when it comes to its freshwater fisheries, and there are no state regulations on licenses nor are bag limits enforced. A colonial act in 1693 by Great Britain 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."

According to Belanger and Fronzuto, the state's attorneys are still investigating the Act of 1693 and how the state might regulate freshwater fishing on Nantucket. O'Brien, for one, thinks there should be regulations.

"I think we're all going to have to understand that we need licenses to protect our freshwater resources," he said. Although he hasn't been on the pond much this summer, he remarked on the number of white perch in its waters.

"I did spend last weekend with my grandson on the pond and we caught a lot of white perch,"

he said. I