Marine Department works to regulate commercial eel, quahog and mussel fisheries
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER WATERFRONT
Nantucket has commercial fishing regulations for bay scallops, but not for mussels, eels and quahogs.

Because of this ommission in island fishing regulations, Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto is preparing to research and author new commercial guidelines for the harvesting of these three marine species.

Although commercial fishermen harvesting quahogs, mussels and eels can take what they can catch, and those going for these species are required to obtain a town shellfish license to do so, Fronzuto would like controls to be tighter.

Reacting to the commercial quahoggers who now want to use dredges armed with water jets that loosen the bottom to expose quahogs, making them easier to dredge out, Fronzuto said that he might as well develop regulations for mussels and eels, since there are limited commercial fisheries for these species as well.

"From time to time, we've had as many as six to 10 people who have commercially quahogged, and we just sort of stayed with the state regulations," said Fronzuto. "What really changed that now is people want to hydro-dredge, so it's time for us to adopt some commercial regulations.

"We've never had commercial regulations on mussels," Fronzuto continued. "There were a couple of guys (mussel fishing) this year - Neil Cocker and Ron Shepherd - and when we have mussels out there, it's usually in the area between Eel Point and Tuckernuck Island."

Nantucket's recreational shellfish license permits the taking of 10 quarts of quahogs per day that are one inch thick at the hinge and no more than a halfbushel per week, and one bushel per week of mussels. Recreational eel fishermen are allowed 50 eels per day. All of these species can be harvested recreationally and commercially 365 days a year under Nantucket's regulations.

What Fronzuto wants to do is put catch, season and size limits on mussels, eels and quahogs, but not until he, Town Biologist Keith Conant and Shellfish Biologist Jeff Mercer determine the size of their populations through underwater and historical research of each species' known habitats.

"You have to find out if it's sustainable," he said. "You have to figure out what's out there, so it's a matter of resource management."

Cocker, one of only a handful of island mussel fishermen who has been dredging for blue mussels in Nantucket waters off and on for 20 years, does so under the impression that the town's limit is 10 bushels per day. Working together, Cocker and Shepherd supply all of the island's fish markets each week with around 50 bushels of blue mussels, for which they charge $1.20 to $1.40 per pound.

Cocker said that local mussel regulations would not faze him as long as they were not too restrictive.

"If it stays at 10 bushels, it makes it a worthwhile thing for four different guys getting that 50 bushels a week," said Cocker. "I think five bushels would be OK, too. The guys need it to be worthwhile for them to go fishing."

Fronzuto would not comment on what catch limits might be for any of these species, as he is just beginning the process of creating these local regulations, but he did allude to some of the possible quahog regulations. He said he would like to run a line from the NB buoy at the end of west Jetty west to the EP2 buoy north of Eel Point, south of which quahog fishermen would be prohibited from dredging. He would also strive to keep these fishermen away from eelgrass beds.

"If you don't have any regulations you can't protect the resource," he said. "You don't want to lose the ability to have a commercial fishery if you have people who need to make a

living from it." I