Field Notes
by Peter B Brace

STOPPED AT THE BORDER Citing insufficient information and not enough time to review it, the Cape Cod Commission, which holds growth management sway over the Cape's 15 towns, voted on Oct. 18 to deny Cape Wind Associates' placement of its electric transmission cables.

The section of the buried cables under the Cape Cod Commission's jurisdiction runs from the edge of the state's three-mile limit in Nantucket to the shore and inland through Hyannis to a substation in Barnstable. The cables connect to the regional power grid, the same substation that Nantucket's two power cables run into.

The commission cited, among other complaints, that Cape Wind Associates did not provide essential project information, an oil spill/accident emergency response plan, a noise abatement plan for the cable installation process, marine impacts from underwater cable installation and open space to be set aside to mitigate the impact of the project.

Cape Wind Associates' Communications Director Mark Rodgers said that with review process ongoing for the last six years, the Cape Cod Commission has had plenty of time to gather necessary information for rendering a decision and thus plenty of time to decide. Rodgers also questioned the commission's logic behind approving Nantucket's second power cable, which travels the same route as Cape Wind's, but not Cape Wind's power cables.

Although he would not say specifically what Cape Wind's next move would be, Rodgers did say one option is to appeal to the state's Energy Facilities Siting Board, which can override the Cape Cod Commission.

CASH FOR SCALLOP RESEARCHERS Two thousand dollars can go a long way for the Nantucket Shellfish Association/Maria Mitchell Association scallop research program.

With the two grand they got from the Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board (SHAB) last fall, the NSA and the MMA were able to continue their research on growth, reproduction and survivorship of multiple age groups of scallops, gonad tissue examinations of these scallops before and after spawning, studying spawning production levels by through spat collection and working with the Environmental Protection Agency monitoring scallops and their habitat at 48 sites in Nantucket Harbor.

Obviously appreciative of and impressed with the work the two nonprofits are doing to help it better understand bay scallops and enhance wild populations, SHAB voted 5- 0 at it Oct. 16 meeting to give them another $2,000 in research money. This latest grant from SHAB will go toward the $3,063.36 needed for a special camera that attaches to and shoots photos through the microscope these groups are already using at the marine lab in the Brant Point boathouse.

AND NO DIVERS EITHER! Answering to comments from commercial scallopers of all methods, Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto, acting on the advice of the Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board at its Oct. 16 meeting, decided to close Second Bend to commercial scallopers who dive for their catch.

At the end of September, just prior to the start of the recreational scallop season, Fronzuto declared all of the waters of Second Bend between Second and Third points off limits to pushrakers and commercial dredgers of scallops. Realizing that it was not fair to allow divers in to fish that area, and wanting the seed scallops to be given the chance to grow, Fronzuto closed it to all scallopers.

Town Biologist Keith Conant and Shellfish Biologist Jeff Mercer need Second Bend all to themselves for the roughly 850,000 seed scallops currently being grown in upwellers and cages in the harbor. Conant had the seed spawned at a hatchery in Harwichport this spring. Mercer is growing it in hopes of augmenting the wild population in the harbor.

Conant chose Second Bend for the seed nursery because of the naturally protective feature of the sand spit jutting well into the harbor from Third Point. Fronzuto told SHAB that the Marine & Coastal Resources Department wants to buy another million seeds next spring.

HARBOR PLAN COMMITTEE STUFF

It could take two years, said Chairman Dr. Sarah Oktay, but the Harbor Plan Implementation Committee isn't wasting any time putting the recommendations in the 2007 Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plan into action.

After they each assigned themselves a section of the plan at their second meeting, committee members got right to it at last Thursday's meeting.

Peter Boyce led off with his section, Natural Resources, and the committee began discussing ways it could get developers to pay for independent engineering studies for developments on or near the harbors.

The Harbor Plan Implementation Committee is comprised of Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board members Boyce, Bam LaFarge and Doug Smith, atlarge members, Leslie Johnson, Carl Sjolund, Diane Coombs and Oktay. They meet the second and fourth Thursday of every month at 5 p.m. in the conference room at 2 Fairgrounds Road, the new home of the Planning Department and Human Services. All meetings are open to the public. Call Oktay at 228-5268 for details.

STEEP AND DEEP Because of complaints this summer that the Children's Beach boat ramp was not steep enough at a grade of 11 percent for boat launching by trailer, the Marine & Coastal Resources Department will make it steeper this winter.

The ramp was repaired, widened to two lanes and realigned with Harbor View Way and its finger piers to the tune of $700,000 last winter. Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto told the Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board at its Oct. 2 meeting that the first three concrete slabs, which are removable, will be lifted out and replaced, increasing the grade to 13.3 percent. This work is likely to be done sometime this winter,

he said. I