Oysters A Growing Delicacy In Harwich Waters

Oysters are relatively new to nurturing at the town’s laboratory, which is located in the former Pogey Johnson’s fishing shack at Wychmere Harbor. The shellfish lab has been in operation since 1994, providing quahog stock to augment shellfish growing in the wild to ensure shellfish harvests for recreational and commercial licenseholders. Last year, Natural Resources Officer Thomas Leach decided to give oysters a try. The program was so successful, Proft said on Thursday, they increased the seed count from 100,000 a year ago to 300,000 this year.

Proft, who has served as the director of the lab since 1994, said the young oysters had another great season in the lab, but there comes a time each year when the seed must be transplanted. Proft has a saying about the autumn ritual: “The lab will be dry and clean by Halloween.” In an effort to accomplish that task, the natural resources department has been busy transplanting 1,500,000 juvenile clams in harbors and along the waterways of the town. Those clams arrived in late June and were three to 4.5 millimeters. Now they average 13 millimeters. “The oysters grow much faster than the clams,” Proft said.

Over the past couple of weeks, Proft said they have planted the young clams in the Herring River, Wychmere Harbor, Stony Bar off Saquatucket Harbor, along the beach at Red River and in Allen Harbor, but not in the Oyster Creek section of that harbor because of proposed dredging by a neighborhood association. He said they were scheduled to plant the remainder of the clams in Round Cove on Saturday.

On Thursday, Proft was focused on oysters. Working with Thomas Telesmanick of the harbor department and volunteer shellfish warden James Coyle, he brought the oyster seed to the least accessible part of the harbor and poured the oysters into cages protected by mesh to keep predators at bay. Proft explained that before seed can be transferred into the wild it must be tested by the state Division of Marine Fisheries. The clams have been tested and approved for transfer, but the state agency has yet to test the oysters. However, its ok for them to be placed in the waters where they were nurtured, he said.

The oysters were placed in the large cages, propped up off the bottom for winter storage. They will wait to see if there is additional growth over the winter months and then determine whether they will be placed back into the lab for another growing season, or tested and then located in different harbors and embayments. “There will be some percentage of mortality,” Proft said of the transplants. ”It’s the nature of the beast. But we’ve been very successful in augmenting Mother Nature.”

Gibbs is currently making his third appeal to federal fisheries regulators, and everyone from local harbormasters to Washington lawmakers have sent letters supporting his bid. But with his personal finances in shambles, Gibbs said he can’t go on any longer. “I’m done,” he said, heaving fishing gear into the back of his truck. Gibbs is getting rid of his gear and has put his boat, the Atlantic Queen, on the market. Gibbs’ story is compelling and unusual, but he’s not alone. Hundreds of other small-boat fishermen from Maine to the Mid-Atlantic have been shut out by the new scallop rules

Proud heritage
Gibbs’ colorful past includes a stint working with his father as a fur trapper; his father, Stan, was an avid angler and went on to invent the famous Gibbs Lures, which are still in production today. His son first fished commercially for scallops in 1976 aboard the Golden Arrow, out of Wychmere Harbor; his other boats included the Gipper, the Big Red and the Gipper II. Though the industry was virtually unregulated when Gibbs first went scalloping, declines in shellfish landings prompted more regulations. In the mid ‘80s, the New England Fishery Management Council put in place rules to curb landings, and before long there was a thriving black market in undersized scallops. In 1988, Gibbs helped lead a campaign to bring the problem to the attention of council members.

Even at that stage, there was a clear competition between large boats from New Bedford and other large ports, and the inshore fleet from places like Chatham and Harwich, Gibbs said. Gibbs said the skipper of one big scallop dragger once bragged that he had been fishing in Canadian waters 10 miles over the Hague Line, and when they were confronted by an approaching patrol boat, he had ordered his crew to sabotage some of the fishing gear so they could claim they were just passing through, headed for port. By the late ‘80s, Gibbs was openly arguing for increased conservation measures.

Working 110 to 120 hours per week, Gibbs designed and outfitted his boats, doing most of the engine work and other repairs. By 1988, he was running two boats: one in Fairhaven and one in Saquatucket Harbor. He had fished up and down the East Coast, visiting various ports between Maine and the Carolinas.

The collapse
It was in 1990 that the sea scallop fishery collapsed, and Gibbs lost almost everything. He was forced to sell both fishing boats and declare bankruptcy. During the years that followed, Gibbs was officially out of the fishery. “I was trying to fight for myself, trying to pay my bills,” he said. His plan was to pay off his debts and rebuild his finances, eventually buying another boat and getting back into the scallop fishery. He made a living clamming and quahogging, and in early 2004 he had an arrangement to lease and ultimately buy a tuna boat, re-rigging it for the scallop fishery. Though he had landed 55 full trips before the control date, the boat and the license were not his, and the sale fell through.

At the time, fishermen didn’t know the significance of that Nov. 1, 2004 control date. Gibbs went on to eventually purchase his current boat, the 51-foot steel-hulled Atlantic Queen. As he did with his other boats, Gibbs completely re-rigged the Atlantic Queen, fabricating much of the gear and welding it in place. It’s a good boat, easily able to handle the weather on the far reaches of Georges Bank, he said. Regulators put in place limited access permits for larger boats, and inshore boats with lower landings histories received general access permits with a catch limit of 400 pounds of scallops per day. Then the issue became clearer: how to divide up the allowable catch of scallops each year.

Dividing the pie
“The big boats didn’t want to divide the pie up,” Gibbs said. Several years ago, general permit holders began to organize to try and reserve their share of the catch, and Gibbs organized a meeting of around 25 local scallopers at his house. Gibbs was named president of the group, and began attending more and more fisheries council meetings. “I spoke at those meetings, more than anybody there, just to tell them, this is wrong,” he said. Some of the limited access permit holders argued that the small boats should be limited to 2 percent of the catch, Gibbs said. “They argued that for years. The big boats pushed it.” Eventually, advocates for small boats had the number increased to 5 percent. Gibbs and others argued that the number was still far too low, but to no avail.

Between 600 and 700 small boats found themselves vying for their share of the 5 percent, and slices of the pie became so small that license holders couldn’t make a go of it, Gibbs said. With revenues way down, “they can’t even pay for their dockage, hardly,” he said. So the decision was made to reduce the number of people in the fishery by cracking down on “latent permits,” ones that are not being used but are held by fishermen as an investment or an insurance policy. To that end, regulators ruled that, unless a fisherman had a valid permit on the control date and had met landings requirements, he or she couldn’t receive a new permit. Under this rule, Gibbs clearly does not meet the requirements for a permit, and so is closed out of the fishery.

Unlike bay scallops, sea scallops are experiencing a strong stock recovery. Various stock assessments and landings reports seem to confirm that there are plenty of sea scallops to be had, Gibbs said. “It’s not about the resource,” he said of the fishing regulations. “All of this is totally unnecessary. It’s all greed-driven.” Bob Keese, who runs the scalloper Beggar’s Banquet out of Chatham, said he’s known and respected Gibbs for years. “But Bruce is not alone. There aren’t too many people who are going to be left when this is all said and done,” Keese said. Keese is a member of the fishery council’s scallop advisory panel, and he said he’s fought from the start for a bigger share of the pie for small boats. “It was very blatantly big business rolling over small business,” he said. At council meetings, a couple of small-time fishermen would be speaking against a panel of four or five highly-paid lawyers and lobbyists representing the big boats, “and they’re really good at what they do,” Keese said.

Keese’s own brother, Andy, was also shut out by the new rules. Andy Keese scallops with Alane, his wife, aboard the Miss Rockville out of Chatham. The two bought their boat just before the control date, and were still outfitting the boat when the control date passed. Because they weren’t fishing, they were shut out.

Appeals pending
In July, Gibbs filed an appeal to Patricia Kurkul, the regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith wrote in support of the appeal. Saying Gibbs has “consistently complied with the changing scallop industry” and served the community in various fishing-related organizations, Smith suggested that regulators “grandfather” Gibbs, giving his history in the fishery. It seems unfair, Smith noted, that Gibbs would be excluded from making a livelihood because of circumstances beyond his control.

Harwich Harbormaster Tom Leach also supported the appeal, saying the scallop fishery has been Gibbs’ sole source of income for more than 30 years. “To see the proverbial ‘rug pulled out from under him’ at this point, being literally blindsided through no fault of his own, seems totally unfair, cruel and unusual punishment,” Leach wrote. A letter jointly signed by Senator Edward Kennedy and Senator John Kerry echoed those sentiments. “Given the uniqueness of this case and his long history as a scallop fisherman, we urge you to give his request for appeal the highest consideration,” they wrote. Congressman William Delahunt penned a similar letter.

Gibbs said after his first appeal was denied, he requested a hearing. Instead, he was granted a brief telephone interview. “That’s not having your day in court,” he said. That request was also denied, and his third and final appeal is still pending, Gibbs said. Shortly after regulators granted his request for a temporary authorization to fish while waiting for word on his appeal, catch limits were met and the fishery was closed. “And guess what? All my bills are due, and I can’t pay them,” he said. Gibbs said he owes a large amount of money on his boat, and has outstanding bills for insurance, fuel and gear. Earlier this month, the town of Harwich notified Gibbs that, if he doesn’t pay his $1,948 dockage fee for the current year, along with a deposit for next year’s fee, the Atlantic Queen will need to be removed from its slip.

Paul Parker of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association said Gibbs is an institution among local fishermen. Over the years, the association has consistently opposed the use of individual fishing quotas, which carve up the resource into shares that can be bought and sold. When permits take on monetary value, “these are the social costs. Great, great people with lifelong careers and dedication to an industry being set aside,” Parker said.

Parker is helping establish the Cape Cod Fisheries Trust, a nonprofit group which aims to buy up fishing permits and lease them out to small boat fishermen struggling to survive. At a certain point, Parker said, it became clear that the quota system was here to stay, and steps needed to be taken to help fishermen to stay in the industry. “This is exactly the type of situation that the fisheries trust is trying to remedy,” Parker said. Three local scallop fishermen have already received permit assistance from the trust, he said, but even those who have permits of their own will almost certainly need to buy additional permits to allow them to land enough scallops to make a living. Parker says he doesn’t know of a single scalloper who can make a living on the landings allowed in his initial permit allocation. It’s not unlike the plight of groundfishermen, who’ve had to invest tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in permits just to remain viable. Any fisherman on Cape Cod can apply for help from the trust, but some think their energy is better spent fighting the quota system, Parker said. He said he admires Gibbs for fighting a tough fight.

If he did touch one, it could be the northern most sighting of the warm water, southern climate herbivore recorded. Currently that record goes to a sighting in Quissett Harbor in Falmouth in August of 2006. There were two reported sightings in that harbor, and Brian VonHerzen of The Falmouth Enterprise said he swam along side that one for 15 minutes. Pfeffer, who lives on Round Cove, said he often fishes for snappers there and was down at the landing last Wednesday assess the presence of bait, when he saw what appeared to be “a big piece of carpet” in the water. He watched it for a while and then thought it was a large dead seal. “Then the nose moved,” Pfeffer said. Pfeffer grew up in Florida and has seen 20 to 30 manatees over the years. He observed the creature for two to three minutes, saw it turn on its side and then noticed its flipper.

The West Indian manatee, also known as a sea cow, was in a shallow area to the south side of the dock. Pfeffer said he called his wife, Janice, and asked her to bring down a camera. She also brought a head of romaine lettuce, knowing how they love lettuce and freshwater. But Pfeffer said the creature began to move and swam out just off the front of the dock where he reached down and touched the sea cow as it meandered to the north side of the cover where sea lettuce growth is most prolific. Pfeffer said when his wife arrived, she could see the disturbance in the water, the nose come up and a paddle as the manatee moved away. “Absolutely, 100 percent confirmed,” Pfeffer said.

Pfeffer said he also called Natural Resource Officer Thomas Leach. Leach and Dennis Murley, a teacher/naturalist from the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, arrived within an hour of the sighting. Leach said he spent a few hours, until darkness set in, examining the waters of the cove in a boat. The naturalist arrived with a kayak and also spent time criss-crossing the cove with hope of a sighting. But neither one was successful in spotting the creature.

Murley said there is “a strong likelihood” a manatee was in the cove. He based that assessment on both the observations Pfeffer related to him about the animal and a sighting of a manatee in the Fall River area a week ago. He also cited the report two years ago in Falmouth which he investigated. He spoke of the improbable trip of Chessie, a manatee bearing a radio tag, which was followed from Florida to Point Judith, R.I. in 1995. “There’s always going to be some skepticism,” Murley said, until a manatee is photographed in these waters.

A few years ago, Murley said, a Rhode Island news station captured footage of a manatee in Warwick, R.I. New England Aquarium reported sightings in Rhode Island and Connecticut in recent weeks, he said. Pfeffer, while not being probed with questions, provided descriptions strongly indicating it was a manatee. His answers along with his knowledge of the creatures from growing up in Florida are strong indicators of what he saw, Murley said. He reported seeing barnacles and green vegetation on the animal, which would not be found on a seal, he added. The creature could have found itself in the warmer waters of Nantucket Sound and turned the corner off Monomoy Island, hit the colder ocean waters and came in one of the two inlets feeling the warmer waters of Pleasant Bay, Murley said. These creatures are not pelagic, but rather prefer river and marshland habitat containing freshwater.

There is speculation the animal was in the cove to access freshwater from springs on the wet side, Leach said. It potentially could be feeding on the sea lettuce or eelgrass. Murley said it is getting late in the season for a manatee to be this far north. Manatees prefer water temperatures of 70 or above and cannot survive for long periods in colder waters. Murley said a manatee can use a lot of energy trying to heat its bodies and may not have access to enough food to provide the necessary energy. That is a concern, he said. As part of his job with the Audubon Society, Murley said, he chases down reports of rare sightings in this area. He said he has never seen a manatee in the wild, though he was in Quissett Harbor the day after the sighting in 2006. He has also been to Florida seeking the “Holy Grail of mammals,” but still has not seen one.

Alum and Long Pond: One year later

A final analysis from environmental consultant ENSR International, which promoted alum treatment over other options and was contracted to handle the installation, is expected later this month, but the most recent review of water clarity and oxygen levels by the firm stated, “It appears safe to say that the treatment did not harm any non-target organisms in the lake.” The use of alum followed a multi-year debate on how to reduce phosphorus. Two neighborhood groups, Friends of Long Pond, which opposed the chemical treatment, and Long Pond Watershed Association, which supported it, were at loggerheads on the issue. But the alum installation went forward after the conservation commissions in Harwich and Brewster (the pond straddles both towns) approved the measure.

Kenneth Wagner, of ENSR, wrote in a recent correspondence with Harwich that he conducted water monitoring in late summer and was “pleased with the results.” “The large reduction in internal (phosphorus) loading during the summer period when it is most influential appears to have allowed clarity increases beyond anything observed in the last decade. ... So far there appear to be slightly more plants and mussels, but not a lot different, and certainly not less; no mortality is indicated,” Wagner said. He added that he conferred with an “eminent freshwater malacologist (mussel scientist), who assures us that even adverse water quality for up to a week after treatment would not kill mussels, as they can close up for that long with no negative impact.” He said ENSR planned to continue monitoring the water through last month, but now that its contract is up, its final analysis will be prepared and volunteers will be expected to take over the testing.

Chester Berg, chairman of the Harwich Conservation Commission, agreed with ENSR, telling selectmen earlier this week that “the reports are very good.” “There have been no algae blooms, no fish kill after the treatment and the water quality reports are coming in very positively, too,” said Berg. Friends of Long Pond president Karen Malkus, who opposed the chemical treatment and instead backed aeration, said she was glad to hear about the positive test results but added, “The critters didn’t get a fair shake.” “I wish we had an animal survey from before the treatment versus now,” said Malkus, who added, “The water was clear before the treatment, too.”

As phosphorus continues to enter Long Pond through the groundwater, levels will again build up over time, possibly necessitating a repeat treatment in 20 or so years. As part of ENSR’s mitigation proposal, Wagner told officials in Harwich and Brewster that homeowners along the banks of the pond should take steps to substantially reduce phosphorus loading. One way to do that, experts say, is to use phosphorus-free detergents for dishwashers and clothes washers, maintain plant life at the edge of the pond and avoid using fertilizers.

Early this year the state Legislature passed Senate Bill No. 536, which, starting in 2010, bans phosphorus from dishwashing detergents. (The element gives glasses their shine.) But more needs to be done, according to Harwich conservation director John Chatham. “Overall, the quality has improved, and we’ll know a lot more once that final analysis report comes in,” he said. What hasn’t happened yet, Chatham noted, is a watershed management plan for homeowners abutting the pond. While meetings are slated to get under way this month, Chatham said, the interested parties are still trying to find common ground on how to proceed. “It can be handled through regulation or education. I’m more inclined toward education because regulation takes a long time. You just can’t make people move their septics back from the pond, but you can direct them to do a lot of little things that would help a lot,” he said. Chatham admitted “we’re dragging our feet” on an educational program, considering 12 months have passed since the mitigation plan was proposed. “Everybody who’s working on this has other responsibilities, too, even the volunteers, most of whom have jobs,” he said. But the program, as Chatham envisions it, will teach abutting property owners about how they can help protect the pond. A phosphorus awareness campaign, he said, would tell people to use phosphorus-free cleansing products, explain how to maintain their septics and fertilize their lawns, for example, and why there needs to be fewer paved driveways, to stem run-off. Information will be published in a brochure, he said. “The Long Pond Watershed Association said they have some grant money available that could help with printing costs,” said Chatham.

Friends president Malkus, who lives in Brewster, said her group has not been contacted about participating in any educational campaign meetings. “We’d like to help,” she said, adding that such a campaign should have been in place 10 years ago. “No one has changed anything in all these years,” said Malkus. The cost of the Long Pond treatment was about $420,000, with $350,000 provided by state grants, $60,000 by Harwich and Brewster and $10,000 from Cape Cod Commission. The alum application was conducted by Aquatic Control Technology.
(Donna Tunney Wed Oct 08, 2008)