Town will produce a shellfish management plan this summer

Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto told the Shellfish & Harbor Advisory Board that in June, the town's harbors plan consultants will come to the island to help it with the creation of its shellfish management plan.

The plan, according the 2007 Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plan, "will serve as the basic document from which Nantucket's shellfishery management and governance practices are derived. The shellfish management plan should be developed with the cooperation of all stakeholders including government agencies, the shellfishers, and researchers."

Its creation will be a public process much shorter than but likely similar in information gathering to the harbors plan, said Christine Uiterwyk, a research association with the Urban Harbors Institute, an arm of UMass Boston that helped Nantucket write its harbors plan.

The Shellfish Management Plan, which the harbors plan said must be completed by Oct. 1 this year, should include:

• The legal definition of an adult scallop,

• Guidelines and objectives for comprehensive scientific research conducted through a cooperative effort between town biologists, fishermen and outside groups,

• Guidelines for monitoring of the fisheries

• An enforcement plan,

• Policies and objectives for shellfish propagation activities,

• Controls on the shellfish fisheries such as license and/or catch limitations, gear restrictions, and closed areas,

• A plan to preserve and enhance the natural resources crucial to the fishery,

• An implementation protocol for the shellfish management plan,

• best practices for population enhancement, harvesting, seed management, or any other activities linked to the preservation and enhancement of the natural resource,

• Guidelines and provisions for evaluating direct or indirect impacts of proposed land use developments, transportation entities, recreational activities or any waterimpacting activity on the fishery and the resources.

The harbors plan also recommends continued use of the Brant Point boathouse marine lab for shellfish propagation, water quality and harbor research and education, and suggests the securing of long-range state and federal grants to financially sustain shellfish and harbor programs at the

marine lab. I

- Peter B. Brace