SHAB reconsiders "hardship" licenses
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Originally known as a hardship license, the delayed entry commercial scalloping license is now under analysis by the Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board. The license could be revised based on the perceived flouting of this late-issue scalloping permit.

SHAB is currently working out how to tweak this part of the shellfish bylaw by either doing away with the delayed entry license, increasing the fee or developing new criteria that delayed entry applicants would have to meet.

All commercial scallopers who want to fish during the upcoming season must get new licenses by the end of the current season, March 31. The license costs $250 and is felt by SHAB to be a reasonable amount to come up with by the deadline.

But, at Shab's Feb. 5 meeting, some SHAB members and the Marine & Coastal Resources Department said a small number of scallopers appear to regularly ignore this deadline and wait to see how recreational scallopers do during October and how commercial scallopers fare in the early weeks of November before getting their licenses. Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto said that in the last few years, those who did apply after the deadline did so because they had not gotten their boats ready in time or forgot to get their licenses by the deadline.

"I would like to be able to fish to March 31," said SHAB member and commercial scalloper Doug Smith at the Feb. 5 SHAB meeting, hinting that the system is being abused. "You let all these guys come in and you lose Marches."

The delayed entry license, when granted after the March 31 deadline, allows the scalloper to start one month after the Nov. 1 opening day. Those granted delayed entry licenses after Nov. 1 would start fishing one month from the date they got their licenses, hence Smith's concern over scallopers joining the harvest well into the season.

But Fronzuto said the actual number of late entry applicants, while higher than normal at 10 this season, with one or two given out during the preceding two seasons because of a lack of scallops, is too low to make much of an impact on scallopers who began fishing on opening day and are still fishing.

"There's a couple that came in right after the season started saying, 'Oh, my God. I forgot to get my license," said Fronzuto. "The very important thing that needs to be noted is that there are only two that are fishing now out of the 10 that applied, so there's not a big glut on the fishery of people fishing with hardships and they're both fishing with other people."

Though cognizant of a handful of scofflaws trying to work the system, SHAB's consensus seems to be that the delayed entry license is still needed.

"Even though you can fake a hardship, there is a real need for a hardship license," said SHAB member Bam LaFarge.

The delayed entry license began as a hardship license in the 1989/90 commercial season when 44,000 bushels were hauled in for an average boat price of $6.29 per pound. During those tough economic times, 54 Nantucketers applied for late licenses as a way to supplement their flagging incomes. Fronzuto approved all of them, but the Board of Selectmen then overturned each one, tasking Fronzuto with developing hardship criteria and interviewing each before granting late licenses. After interviewing all 54, he was able to qualify around 30 for late licenses by asking tough questions about income, ability to pay bills and their prospects for remaining on the island.

"This is a difficult situation," Fronzuto said. "This is somebody trying to decide if somebody should work or not, and that's a difficult thing to have to decide."

Since that season, said Fronzuto, there has been no national economic trend affecting Nantucket enough to flood the fishery with delayed entry license applications, other than scallopers saying they did not have the money for their licenses in time for the deadline.

Currently, there is no hardship license or criteria to be met, only the delayed entry license application, added Fronzuto.

To date, scallopers have dredged up around 16,000 bushels of scallops that are now fetching $13 a pound. Minus the few fishing days below 28 degrees, and those too windy to fish, there are as many as 32 boats still scalloping, most of them in town.

The discussion will continue at SHAB's next meeting on Feb. 19 at 4:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Town

Annex Building at 37 Washington St. I