by Alan Pollock (4/17/08)
Whether they’re spawning in lower numbers because of development pressures on land, or whether they’re ending up in the nets of massive pair trawlers just offshore, river herring continue to be very scarce in Cape Cod herring runs this spring. The runs in Harwich and Chatham are all but devoid of the silvery baitfish, as they have been around the state for the last eight years. Chatham Herring Warden Donald St. Pierre checks the run at Ryder’s Cove three times each day, and Tuesday morning, he saw only a few dozen fish. “It’s not a lot. I haven’t seen any schools,” he said.
In the past, schools of 500 to 600 fish could be seen climbing the fish ladder in the evening or early morning, “but I haven’t seen any this year,” St. Pierre said. Some say the precipitous dropoff is the result of subtle changes around the spawning grounds; others say it’s a simple case of overfishing. But in either case, it spells trouble for the entire marine food chain, not to mention those who depend on it. The fish seen in herring runs are river herring, specifically alewives and blueback herring. They are a separate species from the Atlantic herring, which is much more numerous and travels in immense schools offshore. But in at least one sense, the distinction is superficial: both species are being heavily fished by pair trawlers, industrial fishing operations that haul enormous fine-mesh nets a quarter-mile apart, catching everything in a wide swath of ocean. Pair trawlers routinely work the inshore waters off Chatham.
In a single trip, pair trawlers can land a million pounds of herring. The captains target Atlantic herring, but because river herring often school with them, large numbers of river herring are also caught. Massachusetts and three other states have strict prohibitions on the possession of river herring, so when a pair trawl’s haul contains large numbers of alewives and blueback, they are either pumped overboard as dead bycatch, or landed in a state with friendlier river herring laws as an “incidental catch.” Harwich Natural Resources Officer Thomas Leach said in one trip the pair trawlers are capable of hauling the equivalent of all the fish to go up the town’s herring run last year. “It could be more than double that, in one shot. And that’s just the bycatch,” he said. “They’re taking the legs out of the bottom of the food chain, and they’re taking our runs with it.” Leach said it’s also plausible that some of the decline is linked to nutrient loading in the ponds and streams where herring spawn. “It can cause a change in the whole chemistry of the run. Because nitrogen and phosphate loading leads to lower dissolved oxygen, it makes it tougher on any specie in general to survive,” he said. But in Harwich, not enough water quality data exists to make that connection, and the limited amount of information available now doesn’t show a marked decrease in dissolved oxygen in recent years.
Mike Armstrong, the program manager for anadromous fisheries for the state division of marine fisheries, said the evidence just isn’t there to support the theory that pair trawlers are harming river herring populations. “Do they catch them? Yes. Is it enough to impact the stock? We don’t know,” he said. But what is clear, Armstrong said, is that streams around Massachusetts are drying up more often than they did in the past, keeping juvenile herring trapped in the ponds where they are vulnerable to predation. On Cape Cod, because of the sandy soil, the problem is more acute, he said. When the aquifer is drawn down by drought, or by private and public drinking water wells, the problem is exacerbated. And nutrient loading from residential septic systems and other manmade sources also likely plays a role. “It’s tough to quantify, but when you look at a big, soupy mass of blue-green algae,” it’s not difficult to imagine, he said. But Armstrong admits there’s a problem with this theory: one would expect a sharp dropoff in river herring to have been caused by a sudden change in habitat, like a drought or a development boom. Neither has happened in the last eight years. In the past, herring numbers seemed to swell according to a five-year cycle, but we’re now in the eighth year of low numbers, he said. One possibility, Armstrong said, is that various pressures on river herring caused numbers to decline slightly, making them more vulnerable to other pressures like natural predation and overfishing. “We don’t know what the driving force is,” he said.
The Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association has hosted a number of meetings of all the Cape’s herring wardens, and is actively pushing for conservation measures for Atlantic and river herring. Operations Director Tom Rudolph said the association, the Coalition for the Atlantic Herring Fishery’s Orderly, Informed and Responsible Long-term Development (CHOIR), and other stakeholders joined together as the Herring Coalition, and have lobbied the New England Fisheries Management Council for better controls on the herring fishery. In 2005, the coalition successfully lobbied for a ban on mid-water pair trawling in the Gulf of Maine, allowing instead a less-intensive purse seine herring fishery in this “buffer zone” area. Landings continue to decline around the region, however, and the conservation groups are now pushing for tighter controls for the herring fishery. River herring have already been “pre-listed” as a “species of concern” under the federal Endangered Species Act, said Lara Slifka, herring program coordinator at the hook fishermen’s association. “So at least it’s on the radar,” she said.
Today, the New England Fishery Management Council is expected to vote on whether to adopt a scoping document from its herring committee identifying five objectives for the herring management program, to be known as Amendment 4. Those objectives include closer monitoring of the herring fishery, compliance measures for catch limits, efforts to reduce bycatch, and the establishment of limited access privilege programs, like a herring sector allocation. Rudolph said the time has come to start looking at river herring and Atlantic herring together. Given catch data, “it’s now clear we’ve actually got a series of threats to all the herrings,” he said. The danger isn’t just about herring, harvested for use as pet food and sardines, but for all the other commercially important species that rely on them. Locally, with herring and mackerel species dwindling, about the only feeder fish left are sand eels. “That’s it. That’s our forage base,” he said.
Armstrong said the division of marine fisheries has just hired a full-time herring fishery observer who will make spot-checks as pair trawlers unload their catch, documenting the bycatch that makes it to shore, and providing the first reliable numbers about the impacts of pair trawling on river herring. “The data will be what they are. If I have the data, I’ll jump on the bandwagon,” he said. St. Pierre said he understands concerns about shoreside development, water levels and other habitat issues, but those changes have been gradual, not sudden. Maybe the large number of seals in Chatham Harbor plays a role, “but Harwich doesn’t have seals in front of the Herring River, and their run is horrible. There’s only one thing you can blame it on, really. I think it’s the fishing offshore.”
While the three-year moratorium on the taking of herring expires this year, both St. Pierre and Leach said they will recommend that the ban be extended for the foreseeable future to help stocks recover. St. Pierre said he believes if all the factors align to create one strong year for herring stocks, it might be enough to start a general stock recovery. Armstrong agreed. “We’ve got to keep the pressure off them,” he said. If herring runs are kept clear and well-maintained and the harvest is limited, they’ll once again return in big numbers. “I don’t think they’re all done. They’ve been low before,” he said.
4/17/08
WEST HARWICH — (5/11/08) Two young people who went down to the sea in a dinghy to retrieve a ball had to be rescued by the fire department and the harbor master yesterday afternoon, public safety officials said.
The north wind blew the young man and young woman up to a half mile off Pleasant Road Beach shortly after 2 p.m., Harwich fire Capt. Donald Parker said.
The pair had been playing with a ball on the beach with several friends, according to Harwich police.
When the ball went into the water, the daring duo, who are both in their early to mid-20s, jumped into a small dinghy and began to row out to get the ball, Parker said. But a stiff wind and strong current proved too powerful for their rowing skills.
They made a cellphone call to friends on the beach who notified police (911) who in turn contacted Assistant Harbormaster Heinz Proft at Saquatucket Harbor who got underway immediately according to police authorities.
The Harbormasters vessel was nearly to the scene off West Harwich when Proft said he was passed by the Fire boat, a former CG fast boat. Proft said he was surprised to see that a second boat was needed.
The pair had dressed lightly and were extremely cold but otherwise in good health and were taken to the landing by the EMT's while the Harbormaster towed their craft to shore.
Police declined to provide their names.
One of the boaters, Olga Chang of Boston, was sitting in the kayak, which had submerged. The other, Angelo Medina, also of Boston, had been knocked from the boat while trying to retrieve a paddle that had drifted away. Strong winds had pushed the two apart, and they did not have a bucket to bail out the boat.
Leach immediately went to the area and picked up the two boaters and returned them to shore.
Neither kayaker was injured and both were wearing life jackets.
"This situation had a happy ending and no problems, but with the cold water right now, you never know," Leach said. "This is why you absolutely need to be prepared when you're out on the water."
Leach said attempts in the past to locate the block by scuba diving proved futile due to growth of marine vegetation particularly a dense mat of codium which pervades those waters.
“Sometimes we’re lucky, and I have personally removed two blocks from harms way over the years,” Leach said. “We have had several reports of keel boats drawing six feet or better making contact with something solid down there over the years. But unfortunately we never found anything on our dives to this particular spot even after a report that the county dredge had made contact with something hard. Without details on the exact area it can be like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack.”
However, Leach said, about three weeks ago Captain Jan Margeson of the vessel Great Pumpkin, a local quahog dragger, tagged something hard and was able to provide the approximate location of the contact.
Leach put technology to work on the harbor department vessel Commander. Using an underwater closed circuit television camera he came across what appeared to be three links of chain just barely showing in the sand and marked the spot with GPS coordinates. Leach said the next calm day assistant harbormaster Heinz Proft, an experienced diver, was deployed from the harbormaster’s vessel.
“I located an overturned pyramid-shaped cement block three-quarters buried in the sand with an obvious chip taken out of one corner,” Proft said. “The object was then marked by a rock buoy until it was retrieved last Thursday by the Coast Guard buoy tender.”
The 3,000 pound block is the property of the Coast Guard and used to mark the federal channel. It is suspected that the block was pulled down the channel slope by winter ice leaving the channel markers off station, Leach said. Often heavy scaling or rusting can cause the chain to break at its weakest link when these forces are at their greatest, he said.
Over the years, Leach said, he has spent time after each of these reports scuba diving in the area, but to no avail. About a decade ago, the owner of a sportfishing vessel out of Harwich Port struck and damaged both its propellers and drive train after making contact with a block. The owner made a claim against the Coast Guard and once the lawyers got involved, Leach said, the government’s legal department settled for the damages.
The harbormaster cautioned boaters should never operate a vessel too close to a channel marker or buoy in shoal waters as the watch circle radius can be nearly 30 feet, and vessels could be passing right over a sinker and not know until they strike it.
The issue was raised more than a year ago by Peter McClennen, whose family has traditionally moored vessels in front of their Pleasant Bay properties for a half century, after he was denied access to those moorings.
Harbormaster Thomas Leach said the denial was based on the absence of registration for the mooring when the new harbor management plan went into effect. Absent the paperwork, it was the position of the harbormaster and waterway committee last year that McClennens would have to place their names on a list and wait their turn for a mooring permit.
Selectmen rejected an appeal of the decision a year ago, but instructed the harbormaster to examine the matter. The attorney for the McClennens, Jamy Madeja of Buchanan and Associates of Boston, argued at the time that the location on Pleasant Bay was remote, more than a half mile from a public landing, and there was a public safety threat for boaters to row that far, especially in rough waters.
Leach said last week the McClennens’ properties are so remote from a town landing, “it didn’t seem fair to hold then hostage.” The new provision requires the property owner to have water frontage, not be located in an established mooring field, and be a half mile or greater from a town landing.
Provisions also set a limit of two moorings per property and require moorings to be 15 feet or more from a property line. The mooring permit ceases to exist with the sale of the property. Leach pointed out the decision to issue the permit once criteria are met rests with the harbormaster.
Selectmen wanted to know how the provisions would address properties held in trust, as so many waterfront properties are, Selectman Ed McManus said. One member of the trust might come for a month and the next member might come the following month and so on, and each trustee might have their own boat.
After some discussion, Leach said the town issues the mooring to the property owner and it bears a number, and the harbor management plan requires the issuance of a transom sticker bearing the same number for the boat allowed to use the mooring. The harbormaster said that is the only boat allowed on the mooring.
Selectmen were satisfied provisions were in place allowing for management of the moorings and voted to implement the new provision.
Saturday morning at 8 a.m., on the cusp of the holiday weekend, officials opened the intersection to traffic for the first time in nearly 10 days, along with the Cape Cod Rail Trail. This week, scant evidence remains of the environmental cleanup. On Tuesday, a vacuum truck was parked on the side of the road near a gate in a newly installed stockade fence, pumping liquid from a special filtration well installed there. Officials estimate that only a fraction of the fuel oil, less than 2,000 gallons, entered the groundwater.
The other obvious change to the intersection is the new pavement and markings. Most of the intersection’s old pavement, and hundreds of tons of contaminated soil, were trucked off to a nearby asphalt plant to be made into new pavement.
Thomas Leach, the town’s natural resources officer, said he was surprised and pleased by the thoroughness of the cleanup effort.
“I think they’re doing a fantastic job. I was actually totally impressed by the level to which they’ve taken the cleanup,” he said. “It’s been taken to the nth degree, so I’m very satisfied about that.” While groundwater contamination is always a concern in oil spills, Leach said this case has a clear advantage over other spill sites, like the old Downey’s Garage site near Saquatucket Harbor. There, the oil entered the groundwater over time, leaving a larger area of contamination. There, he noted, the groundwater is much shallower than it is near Great Western Road.
“They’re still stripping oil out of the ground at that place,” Leach said. “I think in this instance, the engineers know what they’re dealing with,” and most of the contamination has been removed, he said.
Much of the oil that entered the groundwater likely did so through an old catch basin by the side of the road, which had been buried in sand. That catch basin leads directly into the wetland, like many other old storm drains around town. Crews dug out the catch basins at the intersection and replaced them with new ones with leaching tanks.
Leach praised the fast action of farmer Link Thatcher and the town’s highway department for quickly bringing in sand to dam up the spilling fuel oil.
Absorbent pads could still be seen this week in the marshy area near the Cape Cod Rail Trail, soaking up any additional fuel which rises to the surface. Crews last week removed contaminated leaves and vegetation from the area, and experts say the flora and fauna there will likely regenerate in a few seasons. Contrary to early reports, the marshy area is not a vernal pool, because it is flooded throughout the year, not just in the springtime.
Harwich Emergency Management Director Lee Culver said the town has extended its thanks to all of the agencies involved in the cleanup effort.
“We would like to thank the Robert B. Our Company, Abby Our and her crew for the extraordinary work to get the site ready to open on Saturday,” Culver said in a press statement last week.
Firefighters, Harbor Master rescue pair from Nantucket Sound
Pair of kayakers rescued off Harwich
HARWICH — (5/26/08) Two kayakers, adrift at sea, were rescued yesterday afternoon off Allens Harbor.
Harwich Harbor Master Thomas Leach was on routine rounds about 11:50 a.m. when he saw the kayakers waving and struggling almost a half-mile from shore.
Obstruction Removed From Saquatucket Harbor Channel
HARWICH – (5/28/08) Boaters entering Saquatucket Harbor can breathe a little easier this summer knowing that an obstruction has been located and removed from the entrance channel.
After an extensive search, a Coast Guard mooring block was found buried in the channel bottom and a buoy tender from Woods Hole was called in to remove the obstruction last week said Harbormaster Thomas Leach.
Waterfront Property Owners Get Mooring Benefit
HARWICH – (5/28/08) It has taken a year, but waterfront property owners located more than a half mile from town landings will now have the opportunity to secure moorings without dealing with waiting lists or being directed to town-designated locations.
The board of selectmen last week approved a change in the harbor management plan allowing private property owners to locate moorings offshore from their property, with the harbormaster’s approval.
Scant Evidence Of Oil Spill Remains At Intersection
HARWICH — (5/28/08) On first glance, everything appears to have returned to normal at the intersection of Great Western Road and Lothrop Avenue, where an oil spill about two weeks ago prompted an aggressive environmental cleanup operation. But appearances can be deceiving.
In fact, it may be years before experts discontinue groundwater testing at the site, where a tanker truck carrying thousands of gallons of fuel oil overturned and spilled its load. The truck swerved to avoid a pickup truck which allegedly failed to stop at a stop sign.