TRURO — Recreational shellfishing opened for the season at Pamet Harbor on Dec. 4 after a month of delays due to water quality issues. The water had tested high for fecal coliform bacteria until it finally passed muster with the state’s Div. of Marine Fisheries (DMF) on Dec. 1.
shellfishing
PROVINCETOWN: THIS WEEK'S CURRENTS
A Park by Any Other Name
Meetings Ahead
Some meetings are in person, some online, and some are both. Go to provincetown-ma.gov and click on the meeting you want to watch to see if a remote option is available.
Tuesday, Nov. 16
- Conservation Commission, 6 p.m.
Wednesday, Nov. 17
- Historic District Commission, 4 p.m., Town Hall
Thursday, Nov. 18
- Board of Health, 4 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6 p.m. Town Hall
Conversation Starters
A Park by Any Other Name
The recreation commission is looking for the public to vote on three potential names for the East End Waterfront Park to be created on what was formerly Elena Hall’s parking lot at 387 Commercial St.
Due to a close vote among survey respondents, the recreation commissioners want more residents to weigh in on the three names: Hall Park (named for the late Elena Hall), Cannery Wharf Park (the historic use of the area), or the East End Waterfront Park (the park’s location).
If you have not voted already, use this link (surveymonkey.com/r/387CommercialStName) by Dec. 1. The recreation commission will also hold a public forum on the name on Dec. 1 at 5:30 p.m.
‘A Clamming Town’
The recreational shellfishing season opened on time, Nov. 5, and runs through March. Recreational license holders may pick and dig on Sundays and Fridays, and Stephen Wisbauer, the town’s shellfish constable, said he expects shellfishing will be more popular than ever this winter as people come out of Covid-19 hibernation.
The Mass. Div. of Marine Fisheries had warned the town that pollution from a wrecked sailboat at the West End breakwater could prevent the recreational season from starting on time. But the harbormaster’s office was able to clear the boat off the breakwater and water testing for fecal coliform (which would have come from the head on the boat) revealed the water was safe for shellfishing, Wisbauer said.
Forty-six shellfish foragers combed the flats on Nov. 7, which Wisbauer called a small, “intimate” group. Past years have brought out as many as 160 foragers in a day. He thinks Sunday, Nov. 14, could attract a record 200.
Residents and nonresidents can purchase shellfish licenses online at provincetown-ma.gov/80/Shellfish.
Most people come to the Provincetown flats at low tide to dig for clams. Oysters are also available, but way less popular.
“People go right by them,” Wisbauer said. “It’s a clamming town.” —K.C. Myers
THE DREDGE REPORT
Shellfishermen, Scientists Study Wellfleet’s Goo
‘Black custard’ isn’t toxic, but it can be perilous
WELLFLEET — Chopper Young was working on his oyster grant one day when a shrill note pierced Chipman’s Cove. Stranded in the mucky tidal flats was a woman in a kayak. She puffed on her whistle, over and over. “Fire and rescue were down there already,” Young said, “but they couldn’t reach her.”
He decided to take matters into his own hands. Wading out into the gummy harbor, Young tossed the woman a rope and tugged her out of the mud.
But not without sinking in himself, said Young, “balls deep.”
SHELLFISHING
Temporary Moratorium Imposed on New Town-Owned Grants
Wellfleet Shellfish Advisory Board asked to recommend uses of HDYLTA Trust flats
WELLFLEET — The select board imposed a temporary moratorium on aquaculture grants on town-owned flats off Indian Neck on Aug. 16, pending a review by the town’s shellfish advisory board. The select board required that the review include input from upland property owners, the marina advisory committee, and the natural resources advisory board.
The moratorium affects about 26.2 acres of unproductive bottom that could potentially be developed into new grants. That area is slightly more than one-tenth of the whole town-owned tract of 254.5 acres.
The select board added a provision that 20 of the 26.2 acres would be made available first to five grant holders who currently operate in deep water outside the town-owned flats.
Monday’s hearing, held remotely, was the town’s first stab at making policy on the tidelands since town meeting voters agreed to buy them in April 2019. The property contains a mix of wild shellfishing area, beach, wetlands, and one-third of the cultivated shellfish grants in Wellfleet.
It is rare for a town to buy land for aquaculture, said Ed Englander, the attorney who represented the four businessmen of the How Do You Like Them Apples (HDYLTA) Realty Trust who sold the tract to the town for $2 million. They had bought the flats in 1999 for $25,000.
The town’s purchase was even more unusual because half the money came from a select board member, Helen Miranda Wilson, who anonymously donated $1 million to help seal the deal; taxpayers provided the other $1 million. A public records request by the Provincetown Banner led to Wilson being identified as the donor.
Wilson, an artist who has never held a shellfishing grant, said she derived no financial benefit from the transaction but simply wanted to help the shellfish industry and protect the flats from deep-pocketed buyers.
Following the controversial purchase, town officials took no action until Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta and Harbormaster Will Sullivan wrote a letter to the select board in April, asking for a public forum to begin planning the future use of the flats.
“We think that we should take a step back as a community and look at the question of what to do with and how to best use the HDYLTA Trust property,” wrote Sullivan and Civetta. “A holistic planning for the area seems warranted in order to bring people together to consider the effects of expanded aquaculture on other harbor users.”
During the Aug. 16 meeting, it was clear that nearby upland property owners are bothered by shellfish trucks on their beaches. Boaters said the Blackfish Creek channel is crowded with shellfish gear and difficult to navigate.
The select board’s decision to impose the moratorium specified that home owners on Field Point and King Philip Road must be included among those consulted on recommendations for use of the flats.
Select board chair Ryan Curley said the five three-acre grant holders who currently operate in deep water are having trouble making their grants profitable. They are Robert and Allison Paine, Dave Seitler and Melissa Yow, the shellfish seed hatchery A.R.C. in Dennis, William “Chopper” Young, and Justin Lynch and Eben Kenny. The area is accessible only on foot at extreme low tides.
The HDYLTA flats include 20.5 acres next to these deep-water grants. If the land is unproductive — that is, not suitable for wild shellfish harvesting — it is eligible to become private grants. That determination must be made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Div. of Marine Fisheries.
Seitler said he did not attend the Aug. 16 meeting but was pleased with the offer to move his grant toward shallower water.
“It would be helpful for me; it would be helpful for the town,” said Seitler. “It seems like a win-win for everybody.” Right now, the former HDYLTA grants in Seitler’s area create what he calls a “random alleyway that nobody can use.”
Civetta said “there is a general consensus” that moving those grants landward into HDYLTA territory would be worthwhile. The deep-water grants would then be turned back to the wild, though that was not part of the select board’s formal vote.
Sullivan, the harbormaster, said returning the deep-water grants to the wild would improve navigation in “that whole stretch of land.”
Curley said he used to be able to tack in his sailboat in Blackfish Creek, but now it is too crowded with shellfish gear on either side.
Anne Sterling, president of the Field Point Property Owners Association, asked that any planning committee include residents of that area who maintain the access roads.
“There is concern about stability of the beach with all the trucks on it,” she said. “So, more grants would bring more trucks.”
Civetta said planning a few new grants on HDYLTA should be fine.
“Wellfleet has been under aquaculture for decades,” she said, “and we don’t have real problems in my eyes. I don’t think this should be a problem — to allow some newcomers to the industry.”
Reporter Alex Sharp contributed to this article.
HDYLTA
2 Years Later, Planning Starts on Those Indian Neck Tidal Flats
Some call for balancing interests of shellfishing, boating, and upland owners
WELLFLEET — More than two years ago, town meeting voters bought 254.5 acres of shellfish flats for $2 million, with half the money donated by select board member Helen Miranda Wilson, the other half coming from taxpayers.
The select board has scheduled a virtual public hearing for Monday, Aug. 16 at 7 p.m., at which town officials will begin to plan what to do with the tidal land.
In April 2019, voters agreed to take the rare step of buying the flats from Indian Neck to Blackfish Creek. The reason, according to advocates of the purchase, was to preserve one-third of the town’s shellfishing grounds from being sold to deep-pocketed corporations or other “entities.”
The flats were owned by the HDYLTA Realty Trust — four local businessmen who had purchased them in 1999 for $25,000. (HDYLTA stands for “How Do You Like Them Apples.”) Their lawyer, Ed Englander of Newton, claimed that the flats were worth more than $4 million and suggested that his clients might sell to the highest bidder. The initial offer to the town was for $3.4 million.
There are 24 shellfish grants on that property, comprising about 75 of the 254 acres, Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta said. The rest is saltmarsh, areas for wild shellfish harvesting, and over one mile of beach, extending from Burton Baker Beach to around the tip of Field Point.
Since the town bought the flats, however, there has been no discussion of how to manage this unique town asset. Attorney Englander, who specializes in beach rights, said that aquaculture farms in Massachusetts are usually privately owned. So, this is a situation without much precedent.
Harbormaster Will Sullivan said he and Civetta have been asking town leaders to set policy for the town’s flats for a while. “When you buy open space, you talk about what to do with it,” said Sullivan. “This was purchased by all the taxpayers. It belongs to the people.”
That means not just shellfish grant holders, but the wild shellfish pickers, upland property owners, and boaters.
Though the flats were ostensibly purchased to protect the local shellfishing industry from wealthy bidders, boat owners need space. Alfred Pickard, whose Wellfleet Marine services most of the moorings in town, said he has trouble finding new places to put his customers’ moorings. Shellfishing gear, especially when it is stacked high, is hazardous to navigation, Pickard added.
Wellfleet Charters owner Kevin Coakley, who takes people fishing from the harbor, agrees that the interests of recreational boaters need to be considered. “I think there needs to be balance, and right now there is no balance,” Coakley said.
Recreational boating has exploded during the past year, Sullivan said. Wellfleet Harbor’s federal channel was recently dredged, and the pandemic has driven interest in outdoor activities.
Bay Sails Marine currently has no motors and no vessels in stock, said Kendra Lindberg, office manager at the Wellfleet boat dealership.
“Everything is gone,” Lindberg said, due to increased enthusiasm for boating and a shortage of materials in the supply chain.
Wild pickers, the shellfishermen who collect and sell the wild oysters, also have rights, Sullivan said. They use a portion of the HDYLTA flats. Other areas of the flats that are not now productive may one day become new aquaculture grants, Sullivan said.
“There is not a lot of availability for new grants, but there is some,” said Sullivan. “What do we want to do with that?”
Then there are the upland property owners. If you have an unbroken row of grants along the shoreline, how do upland owners get access to the water, Sullivan asked.
Some of these questions reached the shellfish advisory board (SAB) in early June, when its members took a vote on whether to recommend a moratorium on new shellfish grants or grant extensions in the harbor. The moratorium proposal failed on a three-to-three tie vote.
Pickard said nothing else should change out there until there is a plan.
“If you don’t have a plan, why keep granting extensions?” he asked. “I am not going to say ‘moratorium’ — just get a plan.”
Will Berrio, a shellfish grant holder in the HDYLTA flats, said he sees nothing wrong with extensions that just square off boundaries that confuse boaters. That is how the three people who recently requested grant extensions described their reason for seeking additional acres. Shea Murphy, Pat Winslow, and select board member Mike DeVasto, who all have grants in the Indian Neck area, requested extensions that together total 3.75 acres, Civetta told the SAB. She has reviewed all three and said they make sense, she said. No other applications for extensions have come before her, she added.
Civetta would not comment on whether she would like a moratorium or even a planning effort.
But Sullivan said, “We want guidance. Clarity and planning in this town are really needed.”
SHELLFISHING
Wellfleet Select Board to Hear Change in Residence Rule
A stopgap for local shellfishermen who can’t afford housing in town
WELLFLEET — For seven weeks, a proposed exception to the Wellfleet Shellfish Regulations’ domicile requirement has pinballed from the shellfish advisory board (SAB) to the select board and back. But discussing it for the third time, the SAB unanimously recommended on May 5 to approve the most recent version of the exception.
Once Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta formally requests a public hearing, the change will come before the select board for what its supporters hope will be the final time.
AQUACULTURE
License for Neglected Nauset Marsh Grant Is Revoked
The 2-acre shellfish bed ‘needs to be used’
EASTHAM — A two-acre aquaculture grant in Nauset Marsh that has gone largely untended for several years will be offered to new stewards.
At its April 5 meeting, the select board ended a three-year-long saga of inspections, extensions, and missed deadlines, voting 3-0 to revoke the commercial aquaculture license held by John Milliken, 66, and Brendan Adams, 40.
Board members Al Cestaro and Jared Collins recused themselves from the hearing and vote because they are both aquaculture grant holders.
“I wish he had gotten it cleaned up, and there was a lot to clean up,” said board member Art Autorino. “But I took a tour of the site and I just don’t have the impression it’s ever going to be a productive grant. So, I’m not in favor of continuing the license.”
The board had agreed at a March 22 hearing to give Milliken and Adams until April 1 to clean up their shellfishing area, aquaculture site N39, despite a recommendation from the town’s natural resources dept. that the pair’s license should be revoked.
“I’m nervous about approving anything without some very specific deadlines as to when things are going to be done,” Autorino had said at that hearing. It was he who recommended the April 1 deadline.
An inspection on April 1 found that “a fair amount of gear, including aquaculture bags, wood, rope, decaying rebar, plastic and old/ripped netting, was still present on the site,” Shellfish Constable Nicole Paine wrote in a report to the board.
“Sadly, it’s still quite a mess,” said select board member Aimee Eckman, who was present for the site inspection. “I know they have done some work, and there’s still a lot more work to do, because there’s a lot of equipment still buried out there.”
The site has been unused for the past five years, according to a report by Paine given to the board on March 18. At that point, Milliken and Adams had already failed to meet three deadlines for removing all unused or obsolete gear: the first was a Nov. 15, 2018 deadline requested by the natural resources dept.; it was followed by March deadlines in 2020 and 2021, set by the select board.
“It’s not personal against anybody,” Paine said at the March 22 hearing. “It’s just it needs to be cleaned up, it needs to be used, and it needs to be productive.”
Adams said in March that he and Milliken had intended to get to the cleanup earlier but had been delayed due to Covid-19.
“I’ve been busy doing daddy day care, and John has been hiding from Covid — he just got his shot last week, luckily,” said Adams. He then estimated there were about 100 baskets left on the grant that were unclipped, piled up, and “ready to come home.”
Adams said, “We’ve been clearing the grant off and we have seed out there that we intend to plant once the rest of the stuff is taken off.”
Town Administrator Jacqui Beebe noted that the grant holders would need to obtain a propagation permit before planting seed.
Neither Adams nor Milliken spoke at the April 5 online hearing at which their license was taken away from them.
“We have a long waiting list of people who are eager to get into the business of aquaculture,” said Eckman before the vote, “and I think it’s time we move on and give them a chance.”
According to Paine, Adams and Milliken have 60 days after the revocation to clean up the grant, after which the town can choose to take over the cleanup at the former licensees’ expense.
ECONOMY
For Wellfleet Shellfishermen, Farmers Market Is ‘Pure Good News’
On the town pier: oysters to go
WELLFLEET — For local shellfishermen, good news this fall was in short supply. Covid’s shuttering of restaurants across the country had wreaked havoc on the wholesale distribution chain, usually a reliable summer boon. Winter — a tight season, even in the Before Times — loomed with no chance of a national reopening by Christmas.
The market, said Wellfleet Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta, “had just crashed.” That left farmers, draggers, and foragers strapped for cash and short on hope. And efforts to regain their footing proved limited by, of all things, their home state.
Other New England states allow commercial shellfishermen to sell directly to consumers. Even if restaurant sales dry up, fishermen can offer their product to friends, family, and neighbors. Massachusetts takes a different approach. It restricts the sale of shellfish to licensed wholesale dealers, whose distribution patterns Covid-19 left in tatters. This fall, Wellfleet’s shellfishermen found themselves faced with a pileup of legal, viable, delicious product — and no way to sell it.
“There’s a lack of parity with the other states, which is a real problem,” said Ginny Parker, president of the Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Association (WSA). In November, Parker said, she petitioned the state Div. of Marine Fisheries (DMF) to temporarily allow direct grower sales. The division denied her request.
That led to a brainstorming session with Civetta, Selectman Ryan Curley, Assistant Harbormaster Will Sullivan of the Wellfleet Shellfish Advisory Board, and Joshua Reitsma, a fisheries and aquaculture specialist with the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension.
From that meeting emerged the Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Farmers Market, a collaborative effort in which the town handled negotiations with DMF and the state’s Dept. of Public Health along with inspections, WSA serves as the promoter, and Wellfleet’s Holbrook Oyster Company, a licensed distributor, is acting as the dealer of record.
The first shellfish market was held on the Wellfleet pier on Dec. 12, the second a week later.
“We know what it’s like to not have a market,” said Zack Dixon, a co-owner, with Jacob and Justin Dalby, of Holbrook Oyster. “So, if there’s anything we can do to help create a market, of course we’re going to do it.”
The market is open to all Wellfleet commercial shellfishermen, who can opt in on a week-by-week basis. Their names, products, and prices are posted on WellfleetShellfishermen.org, where customers can order oysters and clams until 10 a.m. on market days (upcoming dates are Dec. 30, then every Saturday starting again Jan. 9).
Three vendors participated in the market’s first go-around on Dec. 12. Holbrook Oyster sold its own product, as well as distributing other shellfishermen’s. Evan Bruinooge of Outta Bed Oyster Company offered farmed oysters and will have cherrystone and topneck clams, too. Austin and Jared Ziemba sold wild Wellfleet oysters. Three additional shellfishermen joined for the operation’s second week, on Dec. 19: Sonya Woodman, a wild picker, and farmers Jeremy Storer and Pete Brundage.
The variety of vendors and the chance to learn about them is a good thing, said Civetta. She also made the point that oysters from different locations can taste different, even though they are all grown in Wellfleet. The market, she said, “offers a taste of all the different nuances and flavors and nooks and crannies of Wellfleet Harbor.”
“Each oysterman and woman is kind of developing his own following,” said Parker. And just two weeks in, business is strong. Civetta said Dec. 12 saw about 65 preorders and a few dozen walk-up customers. On Dec. 19, over a hundred preorders and a fresh slew of walk-in customers generated so much traffic that a line of cars stretched all the way from the pier to Mayo Beach; the next market will take place at the bandstand to avoid a pileup.
The organizers would not provide exact numbers on how many customers came or how much shellfish was sold. But Civetta did say that the first market sold more than 2,000 oysters and clams and that number jumped to more than 5,000 on Dec. 19. Parker said that, both weeks, every vendor completely sold out of his or her product.
Each shellfisherman sells any preordered product to Holbrook Oyster before it gets distributed to customers. Oysters go to consumers for a dollar a piece; Holbrook collects a nickel per oyster, and credit card processing fees shave off a few more cents. So, although their market reach is reduced, the shellfishermen’s per-oyster profits are high.
For all its success — Civetta called the market “extremely well-supported” by the community, and Parker called it “pure good news” — worry is still a constant.
That’s because the market doesn’t come close as a replacement for the kind of business shellfishermen are missing right now. “I don’t ever see this taking the place of the normal commerce that happens,” Civetta said.
This Week In Wellfleet
Meetings Ahead
From wellfleet-ma.gov, hover over a date on the calendar on the right of the screen and click on the meeting you’re interested in to open its agenda. That document will provide information about how to view and take part remotely.
Thursday, Dec. 10
- Natural Resources Advisory Board, 8:45 a.m.
- Nauset Regional School Committee, 6 p.m.
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 7 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 11
- Select Board, with executive session, 10 a.m.
- Commission on Disabilities, 3:15 p.m.
Monday, Dec. 14
- Dredging Task Force, 7 p.m.
- Energy and Climate Action Committee, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Dec. 15
- Emergency Management Team Covid-19 community update, 10 a.m.
- Barnstable County HOME Consortium, 3 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 16
- COA Advisory Board, 11 a.m.
- Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, 4:30 p.m.
- Planning Board, 7 p.m.
Thursday, Dec. 17
- Cable Advisory Committee, 10 a.m.
- Herring River Executive Council, 3 p.m.
- Housing Partnership, 4 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Covid-19 Update
According to the Mass. Dept. of Public Health’s weekly Covid-19 report, as of Dec. 3, Wellfleet had six active cases of Covid-19, 11 cases considered recovered, and one death from the virus.
Recycling
Wellfleet will return to dual-stream recycling on Jan. 15, reported transfer station foreman Mike Cicale at the last recycling committee meeting.
Social distancing measures at the transfer station will remain in place. Glass will once again be separated out and processed into aggregate in Dennis. Going back to dual stream will save the town a lot of money, said Cicale, and be more effective for recycling.
Cicale also reported that the use of pay-as-you-throw purple bags will be revisited by the board of health in March. There remain concerns about the added financial burden on residents and “making people go to the store just to purchase the bags,” he said.
—Tessera Knowles-Thompson
Turtles
Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary volunteers rescued 87 cold-stunned Kemp’s ridley sea turtles last Sunday, on what marketing and communications director Jenette Kerr called the busiest day the Sanctuary has had so far this season.
Averaging 100 pounds and about two feet long, Kemp’s ridleys are the world’s smallest marine turtle. That makes them adorable, but delicate, too — frigid temperatures in the bay cause them to become hypothermic until they lose the ability to control their muscles and move with the rhythms of the tide.
Some of the Kemp’s ridleys are receiving medical treatment at the New England Aquarium, and others at Buzzards Bay’s National Marine Life Center.
Also hot in turtle news was the Tuesday washing-up of Wellfleet’s first cold-stunned loggerhead sea turtle, a juvenile that weighed in at just 45 pounds — tiny compared to the 350-pound mature loggerhead, the Big Cc, that washed ashore in Truro and died in the New England Aquarium’s turtle ward last week.
The juvenile loggerhead’s cold stunning denotes “a new phase this season,” said Kerr. “Now we’re going to expect those larger turtles to start coming in.”
Truro leads this year’s cold-stunned turtle count, with 192. Eastham has recorded 160; Wellfleet 129; Provincetown, only 40.
Shellfish
The Woods Hole Sea Grant program doled out $10,000 in Covid-19 relief money to Wellfleet’s shellfish dept., matching the $10,000 allocated for propagation activities at town meeting.
Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta put that $20,000 to use on Tuesday, Dec. 8, buying 1,111 overstock oysters each from 40 shellfish farmers at 45 cents apiece. Each farmer walked away with a $500 check.
“Shellfish farmers have really been affected, because there’s just such a decrease in restaurant sales,” Civetta said. That includes markets near and far, she noted, “not only in Massachusetts, but in New York City, Las Vegas, everywhere. Oyster sales are way down.”
The bought oysters will be distributed in recreational-only harvest areas, which have seen more activity than usual as the Covid-19 pandemic has stretched on. While Civetta hasn’t seen an increase in requests for permits, she said that, across the board, people are using their permits more.
“It’s good exercise, you can social distance, it’s outdoors, and you’ll bring home food for your table,” she said. “The appeal’s all there right now.”
—Josephine de La Bruyère
currents
This Week in Wellfleet
Meetings Ahead
From wellfleet-ma.gov, hover your mouse over a date on the calendar on the right of the screen, and click on the meeting you’re interested in to open its agenda. That document will provide information about how to view and take part remotely.
Thursday, August 20
- Dredging Task Force, 9 a.m.
- Select Board at Wellfleet Seasonal Resident Association, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, August 25
- Select Board, 7 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Covid-19 Update
As of August 18, Wellfleet had one active case, ten cleared cases, and one death as a result of the coronavirus.
Testing Expansion Effort
Health Agent Hillary Greenberg-Lemos is working with Truro Health Agent Emily Beebe and with Outer Cape Health Services to determine a way to test people for Covid who don’t have symptoms. To currently qualify for a test at Outer Cape Health, a patient needs to have been in close contact with a suspected case. “The problem is, the state isn’t recommending asymptomatic testing,” Greenberg-Lemos said at Tuesday’s Covid Task Force Meeting. She added that being able to test asymptomatic people is especially crucial as schools begin to open.
Shellfish Dept. Revenue Doesn’t Dip Much
The Shellfish Dept. has made about $82,000 this year, which is down from about $87,000 last year, according to Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta. The figures surface at a time when town officials are still unsure about the overall losses in revenue they will face due to Covid. “At this point, I don’t think it will be that big of a difference; I don’t think we will be down too much,” Civetta said at Tuesday’s Covid Task Force Meeting. The constable said she expects to see a rebound in profits during the fall.
Emergency Staff Is Back
The Wellfleet Fire and Police depts. have been short-staffed for most of the summer, but now both have received crucial new personnel. The fire dept. filled two of its four open spots, with an additional third member expected to join the team soon, according to Chief Rich Pauley. The police dept. filled its two open spots with two new police academy graduates, according to Chief Mike Hurley. —Devin Sean Martin
currents
This Week in Wellfleet
Meetings Ahead
From wellfleet-ma.gov, hover your mouse over a date on the calendar on the right of the screen, and click on the meeting you’re interested in to open its agenda. That document will provide information about how to view and take part remotely.
Thursday, Aug. 13
- Housing Authority and Housing Partnership, 10 a.m.
- Nauset School Committee, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, Aug. 14
- High Toss View Development-Proprietors, 6 p.m.
Monday, Aug. 17
- Energy and Climate Action Committee, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Aug. 18
- Emergency Management Team and Select Board Community Update Calls, 10 a.m.
- Open Space Committee, 4 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 19
- Conservation Commission, 4 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Covid-19 Update
As of Aug. 9, Wellfleet had four active cases, seven cleared cases, and one death as a result of the coronavirus.
Beach Crowd Control
The select board extended the required date for beach stickers to Sept. 27 in a unanimous vote on Tuesday. “The intent is primarily to help control potential crowds,” said board member Ryan Curley, who first pitched the idea of extending the date at the Aug. 4 emergency management team meeting. Hurley said the rental agency We Need a Vacation told him they are seeing a 25-percent increase in fall rentals compared to last year. He added, “We know that September is one of the busiest months in terms of shark safety; in terms of public safety, it’s really beneficial to have lifeguards on beaches in the month of September.” Beach Administrator Suzanne Grout Thomas supported the idea, saying the extension is worth it just to keep lifeguards on the beach. She added that the move is unlikely to yield the town any additional revenue.
New Committee in Town
The Rights to Public Access Committee is Wellfleet’s newest regulatory committee. The select board voted unanimously to establish the group at Tuesday’s meeting. The task of the committee will be to maintain, establish, and improve public access to town landings. The group’s primary focus will be on re-opening access to shellfish tidelands, according to select board member Ryan Curley, who proposed the committee’s formation to the board. “We just need a dedicated body to take on this responsibility,” he said.
Chair Mike DeVasto supported the idea, explaining that shellfishing is allowed on private tidal flats, but some can be accessed only by trespassing on private property. Former member Kathleen Bacon opposed the new committee. “We have committees in place to deal with these issues,” she said. “They may need more help or more members, but I’m kind of against forming another committee.” Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta disagreed, saying, “A lot of committees work on this, but we need one committee working on this so it’s all in one place. My department cannot do it; we do not have the resources,” Civetta added.
Play Structure Dismantled
The wooden structure at the Wellfleet Elementary School playground has been deemed unsafe after a child was recently injured on it, according to select board member Ryan Curley. The Dept. of Public Works is in the process of dismantling the structure. Curley added that the cleared space will be used for outdoor learning when classes start again on Sept. 16.
A Major Land Gift
The Wellfleet Conservation Trust (WCT) received a gift on Aug. 5 of 18.5 acres overlooking the Herring River on the east side of Chequessett Neck Road. The land is the major portion of a 20-acre parcel purchased by the donor, Jacqualyn Fouse, from the Chequessett Yacht and Country Club Trust last week for $6.7 million.
“We really love the land, and we are grateful to get it,” said Dennis O’Connell, president of the trust. It is the largest gift of land the WCT has ever received.
The property had been part of the club’s plans to renovate its golf course, according to a statement from the trust. Most of the land could have been built on, said O’Connell.
“WCT will keep the area in its natural state, preserving the habitat and natural functions of the land,” said the trust’s statement. “The Trust will create limited walking trails to scenic views across the Herring River valley.”
Fouse owns a house adjacent to the new conservation land. She also donated 30,000 square feet of undeveloped land on Chequessett Neck Road, worth about $40,000, to the trust in 2015. She has been the CEO of Agios Pharmaceuticals, a Cambridge-based developer of anti-cancer drug therapies, since February 2019. —Devin Sean Martin
OUTER CAPE PORTRAIT
Ingenuity on the Flats
NANCY CIVETTA / SHELLFISH CONSTABLE / WELLFLEET
In early July, things are different on Wellfleet’s shellfish flats. Even as restaurants begin to open more fully across the commonwealth and country, demand for oysters is only now starting to pick up, and the outlook for local harvesters and growers seems uncertain. In mid-May, Nancy Civetta sat down to reflect on how the pandemic has affected Wellfleet’s shellfish community and on the “positivity” she sees on the flats. Here’s Nancy in her words:
The winter of 2019-2020 never really happened.
For the first time in many years, we got no ice. So, farmers were able to get their animals out of their pits and back onto the flats fairly early. The mild weather definitely put people in a good mood. It’s easier to go to work when it’s not frigid and buried in ice.
The middle of March is when the pandemic really hit our shores. Gov. Baker issued a stay-at-home order. Just from one day to the next, all of the markets dried up, and people had no place to sell. Spring can be a very good time to make some sales, as markets typically start to pick up. And it evaporated.
It really put a crush on local shellfishermen in a way that I don’t think we’ve ever experienced before. People felt it immediately, because if you can’t make a sale, you can’t make a paycheck. From one minute to the next, there was just no harvesting. And it was bleak for a number of weeks.
* * *
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and very quickly this little community of Wellfleet, as always, rolled up its shirtsleeves and got down to the business of being creative. The first thing that happened is that Wellfleet Shellfish Promotion and Tasting, Wellfleet SPAT, the nonprofit that produces the annual oyster festival, began an initiative to purchase, at a very good price, oysters and clams from growers and wild harvesters. And then they donated it to local food banks, food pantries, elder care facilities. The shellfish that comes right from Wellfleet Harbor ended up on the dinner plates of people in need throughout Cape Cod.
Even though they are independent minded, shellfishermen love to brainstorm together and come up with ideas. You see this raw ingenuity as you drive around on the flats and watch people at work. No two people do things the same. You can look out and see a bunch of racks and bags with oysters in them, but it doesn’t mean that it’s happening in the exact same manner. And in fact, it doesn’t. There’s such a wide diversity of people — fathers and daughters, couples, friends — that run these farms. There’s some people who run bigger farms, but there’s just the beauty of the family farm and the small business.
* * * *
Wellfleet and shellfishing have been synonymous since 400 years ago, when the bay was discovered (by Europeans), and it was just oysters, oysters everywhere. In addition to having the most farms of any other town in the commonwealth by almost double, we also are number one for the wild oyster fishery.
And the one thing about Wellfleet Harbor that makes it very, very different from other places is that we have natural reproduction of oysters. We have spawning, we have perfect habitat.
Shellfishing is the number one industry for the town year-round. It employs 15 percent of the population, and it’s the lifeblood. It’s what makes this community tick. It’s what makes us successful and who we are. I just really pray that when markets come back, that the Wellfleet name — the world-renowned recognition that the Wellfleet oyster brand name has — will be the first thing people think of, because competition will be quite tough.
* * * *
I’ve been on the job now (as constable) for two and a half years. I think I’ll probably be a student until the day I retire, and I still won’t have learned it all. I love going out and having conversations with people, whether on a farm or in the wild. Everybody has something to share. And I certainly have something to learn from everyone, from people who have decades of experience out there and from people who are just starting out, because they see things with fresh eyes.
SHELLFISHING
Seasonal Permits Are Banned in Wellfleet
But more costly year-round licenses remain an option
WELLFLEET — Vacationers and visitors received another blow from the select board last week — a ban on seasonal recreational shellfishing permits.
On top of the short-term rentals ban through at least June 8 and the elimination of one-day beach passes for 2020, the select board voted unanimously on May 26 to halt the sale of seasonal permits.
Shellfish Constable Nancy Civetta requested the ban on the four-month permits to reduce the density of shellfish aficionados on Indian Neck.
“It’s hard to social distance on Indian Neck when it’s the only place people can go,” Civetta said. “Sometimes, there are 40, 80, 100 people out there.”
Civetta said she wouldn’t have enough staff to patrol the area adequately. Even before Covid-19, the constable had planned to petition the town for a budget increase for the shellfishing dept. to hire an extra person to patrol the Indian Neck flats.
With no ability to increase the budget until the delayed annual town meeting, now set for Oct. 5, Civetta feels she can’t properly check for permits and keep people safe on the flats.
Resident permits for year-round recreational shellfishing are still available, which helped persuade two skeptical board members to vote for the ban.
“Shellfishing is a recreation that puts people outside,” said board member Kathleen Bacon. “I know there is a lot of concern because of Covid-19, but this is precisely the kind of activity that we would like to see continue.”
Board member Michael DeVasto had a similar reaction, at least initially.
“It just seems to me there is enough space out there,” he said, “and if there is already [a shellfishing staffer] there, it seems like there is enough space for that to function.”
Though both Bacon and DeVasto opposed the ban at first, they later voted for it after Civetta said that nonresidents can still buy year-round residential recreational permits.
Annual permits are $210, compared to $85 for the banned seasonal permits.
Seasonal recreational shellfisherman Amanda Grabel said she doesn’t mind the extra cost.
“I was happy to buy the annual one, knowing that the town will be losing a lot of income,” she said.
Grabel, who recently bought a summer home in Wellfleet, has been shellfishing on Indian Neck with her family for six years.
Civetta hopes that the higher cost of annual permits will keep the number of people on the flats lower while allowing passionate shellfishers to do what they love.
Last year, the department sold 114 nonresident recreational permits, and 57 resident permits.
“Even if we cut down on the numbers a little bit, it would go a long way,” Civetta said.
Select board member Helen Miranda Wilson supported the constable, saying, “People who come in quickly aren’t accustomed to social distancing — right now, this summer, we have to protect people. This requires staff to get up close and personal. I just don’t want to add to their lack of protection. I’m thinking about the staff now.”
currents
This Week in Provincetown
Meetings Ahead
All meetings will be held using video conferencing. For details: provincetown-ma.gov/27/Town-Boards and from there click on Upcoming Meetings.
Thursday, April 9
- Planning Board, 6:30 p.m.
Monday, April 13
- Select Board, 7 p.m.
Tuesday, April 14
- Licensing Board, 5:15 p.m.
Wednesday, April 15
- Historic District Commission, 4 p.m.
Thursday, April 16
- Zoning Board of Appeals, 6:30 p.m.
Conversation Starters
Coronavirus Update
As of April 6, there were five confirmed cases of coronavirus in town, with one death and 16 additional cases considered recovered and cleared from quarantine, according to the town’s website.
Pier Corp. Meeting Delayed
The Provincetown Public Pier Corp. delayed a controversial meeting that had been scheduled for April 2, said Leslie Sandberg, a consultant hired to conduct public relations for the Pier Corp.
Members of the Pier Corp. had planned the meeting to review the current criteria by which boats are selected to rent slips on MacMillan Pier. Several commercial fishermen were not happy with the changes that members of the Pier Corp. had suggested. Fishermen worried about a dockage fee increase and a new parking fee. They also worried that the new rules would push out some of the current tenants.
On April 3, Dan McKiernan, acting director of the state Dept. of Marine Fisheries, sent a letter to the Pier Corp. arguing for further delay of regulation changes until after this summer. “The DMF is working to assist the commercial fleets through this crisis by assisting them in opening new markets for seafood and encouraging direct sales of lobster and finfish to local residents,” McKiernan wrote to Pier Corp. Chair Regina Binder. “Other agencies are looking to relax rules where possible to avoid unnecessary burdens at this critical time. I hope you will take a similar approach and suspend the deliberations on altering fees and eligibility for longstanding commercial fishermen who depend on your port.”
Shellfishing Extended
The recreational shellfishing season will be extended until April 26 in three areas: east of the West End Breakwater; from Captain Jack’s Wharf to the Provincetown Inn, and in the East End by Johnson Street, for bay scallops only. No new licenses will be available for purchase until the town clerk’s office reopens. —K.C. Myers
SHELLFISHING
Eastham Mussels, Once Abundant, Are Harder to Find
Part one of a two-part story on the Outer Cape’s mussel fishery
EASTHAM — Mussels are a wild fishery on Cape Cod. That is, if you’re eating a locally harvested mussel, nature did the planting and cultivation. Some are wondering if shellfish growing might make sense here as part of a growing aquaculture industry.
The Outer Cape’s mussel fishery is small. For those with a commercial shellfish permit in Eastham, the catch limit is ten 60-pound bags per day, but Andrew Morgan, a shellfisherman here since 1987, said he hasn’t reached those numbers in years.
“The past few years I’m lucky if I could get 90 pounds in five to six hours,” said Morgan, who owns Native Cape Cod Shellfish.
Morgan is a licensed wholesaler to local restaurants and markets and sells at his own seasonal spot in the Aquarium Mall in Provincetown, too. He harvests wild mussels mainly out of Nauset Estuary, and he may be the only one in Eastham still running a commercial mussel operation. Nicole Paine, Eastham’s shellfish constable, said no one harvests mussels on their aquaculture sites in town.
Paine said that, besides Morgan, three others have commercial licenses to harvest mussels in Eastham: Luther Eldredge, Timothy Linkila, and Jerry Quigley. The Independent was not able to locate Linkila or Quigley. Eldredge, who is 93 years old, was not feeling up to talking with a reporter.
“I have heard stories, from before my time working here, when mussels were very abundant in the Nauset Marsh system,” said Paine, who was named constable in 2017. The harvest hasn’t been as good in recent years, she said.
Tom Marcotti, shellfish biologist for the town of Barnstable, said that commercial and recreational harvesters compete with predators — worms, starfish, and ducks among them. The starfish uses suction disks on its body to force open mussel shells. And according to the Mass Audubon website, the common eider comes by the tens of thousands to Cape shores in winter, and mussels are an important source of food for them.
Marcotti confirmed the unpredictable nature of the natural set. “We actually have a geographical location called Mussel Point,” Marcotti said. Some years, he said, acres of mussel beds appear, they stick around for a few years, then, just as quickly, the population dwindles.
Where do they come from? “I think there must be massive mussel beds in the canal or the bay that float in and just set,” he said.
Provincetown Shellfish Constable Stephen Wisbauer agreed that mussels are plentiful in Cape Cod Bay.
“Wild mussels have sought deeper water in recent years due to sea temperature rise and this has protected the species from predators to some degree, resulting in huge subtidal beds in the bay,” Wisbauer said. “It is a fishery with good opportunity.”
Mussel harvesting is recreational only in Truro, according to the town’s shellfish constable, Tony Jackett. And while Wellfleet allows commercial shellfishermen to harvest mussels, Constable Nancy Civetta said she does not know of any who do so.
Wellfleet would be an unlikely location for future mussel farming, said Alex Hay, who runs Wellfleet Shellfish Company, the wholesale buyer. “Wherever you have intensive farming of other shellfish, mussels would be the last thing you’d want to introduce,” he said. “Mussels and their filaments have a way of getting all over everything,” and could smother oyster beds and gear, said Hay.
As for ideal growing conditions, Morgan said those brought up from firmer muddy bottom are ideal because they’re not filled with grainy sand and are easier to process. Morgan uses a pitchfork to get them out of the water and then proceeds to pull the beards, or filaments, off the shells. Debearding is a tedious process, Morgan said, but it improves the mollusk’s shelf life.
Hay agreed that Morgan’s hands-on approach is worth it. He said in his company’s early years it was getting mussels from Morgan in Eastham. “Those Nauset mussels are really clean,” Hay said. “They were some of the best I’ve ever had.”
Another factor the market cares about, said Hay, is consistency of size. The ideal mussel is harvested when it is about three inches long, he said. But when they come in bigger, at four or five years old and as many inches long, they’re less appealing. Industry folks have a name for the big ones: “gaggers.”
In spite of the high quality of Morgan’s mussels, Hay no longer buys them. That’s because over time Morgan could not provide enough to meet wholesale demand, Hay said. Producing a steady supply would be another challenge in the quest to develop a market for Outer Cape mussels, he noted.
“I’m not selling milk or bread,” Morgan said, adding that his mussels are more of a boutique item for direct sale to restaurants and local markets. The Nauset Fish Market in Orleans confirmed they sell mussels harvested by Morgan and Eldredge.
Morgan said he doesn’t see increasing his production to change that equation. His approach has been enough to help support his family for three decades, he said.
“I don’t want to sacrifice the romance of what I do for more money,” said Morgan. That romance, he said, is the “dirt under my fingernails and the barnacles on my chin.”
