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shellfishing

    economy

    So You Want to Lease Those Shellfish Flats?

    How the rights to Wellfleet’s public aquaculture grants change hands

    By

    Shellfishermen working in Wellfleet Harbor. (Photo Teresa Parker)

    WELLFLEET — The town’s taxpayers now own over 162 acres of shellfish flats on Indian Neck, the most productive part of the harbor, after purchasing the acreage from the How Do You Like Them Apples (HDYLTA) Realty Trust.

    The purpose of the $2 million purchase, finalized at a closing last week, was to protect public land so that local residents have a low-cost way to get into shellfishing, a well-paying, year-round, and historic industry, said Nancy Civetta, Wellfleet’s shellfish constable.

    But the transaction puts the spotlight on the town’s role in granting or transferring leases to residents who want to grow and harvest shellfish. (The leasing of the flats is a separate issue from their ownership; in Massachusetts, unlike any other state, the intertidal zone between the mean high- and low-tide lines, may be privately owned.)

    According to town regulations, this is how it works: the town leases flats to the public and charges just $25 an acre per year. Whenever a grant — that is, an area of the flats to be leased — becomes available, the town holds a lottery for qualified shellfish farmers to determine who will get it.

    Only one such lottery has taken place in the last 18 years, even though dozens of grants have changed hands.

    To be awarded a lease you must be a Wellfleet resident, and you must have some experience working the flats. Current regulations require that grantees have held a commercial shellfishing permit or worked as an employee in the aquaculture industry for the preceding three years. You must also produce a five-year plan for the select board to approve a lease.

    Conceived as a way to manage a public resource, the leases are not meant to be bought and sold. And yet when a grant is passed from one lease holder to the next, money often changes hands.

    While it is illegal to sell a lease, it is perfectly legal to sell shellfish and aquaculture equipment. No one monitors the amount of money that retiring lease holders charge new lease holders for the shellfish and equipment on their grants.

    “The truth is, yes, money has changed hands and it’s usually tied to equipment and product remaining on the grant,” said Civetta.

    Handing Grants Down

    Paying a former owner for shellfish and equipment makes sense because people do invest thousands in this business, said Toby Storer, who has held an aquaculture lease in Wellfleet since 1979. He is also one of the four beneficiaries of the HDYLTA Trust, which sold the Indian Neck flats to the town.

    “If money is involved in a transfer — and it usually is — it’s under the pretext that it’s for product,” he said. “That has some validity.” But, Storer added, there is very little transparency about the monetary transactions that almost always take place in a transfer of a license. He said he’s heard of large sums changing hands. There are also cases of lease holders subleasing their grants, he said.

    Storer said that if this were a deal between two private business owners, that would be one thing. But now that the town has bought HDYLTA’s shellfish flats, this is truly public land acquired with a taxpayer investment.

    “So there needs to be someone looking at that very carefully,” he said.

    Regulation of the transfer of licenses was at the heart of H. 746, the so-called Cutler bill, which most shellfish farmers in Wellfleet oppose and which now appears to be dead in the water. The Mass. Aquaculture Association (MAA) supported the bill, but has since backed away from it because of widespread opposition.

    “The bill was intended to address a shortcoming of the existing law that is increasingly becoming the issue for oyster farmers — namely that there is little consistency in the way licensed shellfish lease transfers are handled at the municipal level,” wrote MMA President Seth Garfield in an Oct. 9 letter to the legislature. “The nebulous status of these leases puts the viability of these businesses and the jobs associated with them at risk. The intent of the bill was to make the status and transferability of these leases more stable and predictable.”

    Most Wellfleet shellfishermen oppose H. 746 because they see it as a threat to their traditional ways of handing grants down to children and co-workers.

    “I’m mostly concerned that we keep our heritage,” said shellfisherman Richard Blakeley on Nov. 1 at a legislative update session sponsored by the Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Association. “Joe Francis’s grandson Aaron is working his grant. It’s a wonderful thing. We want to hang on to that.”

    ‘It’s Supposed to Be Given Back’

    Retiring lease holders almost always select the people who will take over their grants. While the successor must meet the criteria in the shellfish regulations, and the select board has the final say, private deals mean it is rare for flats to become available to the public.

    It happened for the first time in at least 18 years in 2018 when Tim Hughes and Rick Merrell gave up their grant to the town. Justin Lynch, a shellfishermen for 20 years in Wellfleet, was one of 12 people to enter the lottery for the Hughes-Merrell grant.

    Hughes told the Provincetown Banner in 2018 that he felt the way the grants get passed down was unfair. “Everyone has some way of selling,” he said then. “You’re not supposed to get property from the town and hand it down to your kid. We gave it back because it’s supposed to be given back.”

    Hughes did not wish to comment for this article.

    Each town has authority on shellfish regulations, and there is wide variation from town to town. Some towns allow lease holders to pass on their grants only to family members. Some towns allow no more than two people to be lease holders on a single grant. Some towns, like Chatham, don’t allow grants at all.

    Chatham Shellfish Constable Renee Gagne told the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance that almost every spot on Chatham’s flats has a history of being naturally productive, and so “the thought of taking public lands and putting it in the hands of one private grower [isn’t supported]. This is our blue-collar industry. When everything else fails, everyone relies on the quahog.”

    Civetta said Wellfleet has set up its regulations through a public process that works best for Wellfleet, which allows four people to share the lease for one grant.

    The intention in Wellfleet is to allow someone to “operate as a private business — however, a business that has really, really cheap rent,” Civetta said. “So it’s a great way in. This offers people a really easy way to make a year-round living on the Cape, through wild shellfishing or grants.”

    Ginny Parker, an organizer of the Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Association, said the town’s aquaculturists like the way Wellfleet handles license transfers.

    “The guys don’t seem to have a problem with the transfers,” she said. “Some older guys who want to retire and don’t have anyone to give it to don’t want it to go back to the town because they will lose their investment.”

    POLITICS

    Sen. Cyr Says Cutler Bill ‘Ain’t Gonna Happen’

    Shellfishermen are reassured by local legislators on fears of change

    By

    WELLFLEET — State Rep. Sarah Peake and Sen. Julian Cyr appeared before a friendly crowd of shellfishermen at Preservation Hall on Nov. 1 and told them what they wanted to hear: that the so-called Cutler bill, H. 746 before the state legislature, has virtually no chance of becoming law.

    The legislation was originally promoted by the Mass. Aquaculture Association and has been associated with the Mass. Shellfish Initiative (MSI). Last week’s session was organized by the Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Association, which has opposed the bill because of what its members believe is its potential to disrupt the town’s traditional way of assigning and transferring aquaculture grants by allowing them to be sold to the highest bidder.

    Ginny Parker, an organizer of the local shellfishermen, said that their association now has more than 160 members.

    Cyr noted that he is one of eight members of Senate President Karen Spilka’s leadership team, and that Peake is one of eight members of House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s leadership team.

    “Because of our positions,” he said, “if we’re not on board with it, it ain’t gonna happen.”

    WSA meeting
    State Rep. Sarah Peake, Sen. Julian Cyr, and Ginny Parker of the Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Association. (Photo Ed Miller)

    Peake noted that she had gotten herself appointed to the MSI task force as a way of helping to shape the agenda for the initiative. “If you’re not at the table, you might be on the menu,” she said.

    “There has to be a broader conversation about how people can get into the industry and how licenses are transferred,” said Peake. “How does someone who has created equity in their brand through hard work get compensated? It can’t be one size fits all. There has to be flexibility. These are important issues.”

    Helen Miranda Wilson, a member of the select board, argued that the Cutler bill was unnecessary.

    “Under chapter 130 [of Mass. General Laws], any municipality could enact what they want to do in the Cutler bill,” she said. “Why do they want to make all of us do it that way?”

    “Nobody bothered to turn to the next page of the statute book,” replied Peake.

    Discussion at the meeting turned several times to so-called 208 plans requiring towns to reducing nitrogen levels in waterways and coastal embayments. Some have argued that oysters, as filter feeders, should be cultivated as an alternative to costly sewer systems and treatment plants. This alarms growers who see a market glut causing a price collapse.

    “Wellfeet is producing 10 million oysters a year and our nitrogen has gone up,” said Michael DeVasto, a shellfish farmer and Wellfleet selectman. “They’re talking about 21 million more oysters. I don’t know what you do with all of those. It’s a huge threat.”

    “There ways to manage 208 oysters so maybe they don’t go into the same market stream,” said Peake.

    “I think we’ve put too much on oysters to clean up the water,” said Cyr. “Most of it needs to be pipes and pumps. The science doesn’t back up that aquaculture is going to solve the nitrogen issue. Having pipes and pumps means we can build with more density, which means more places to live for not rich people.”

    them apples

    Appraisal Cleared Way for Purchase of Flats, Town Announces

    But appraisal document is withheld as officials contradict each other

    By

    Wellfleet shellfish flats
    Shellfishermen work the tide at sunset in Wellfleet Harbor. (Photo Teresa Parker)

    WELLFLEET — “We got the money, baby!” crowed Edward Englander, the Boston attorney who represents the HDYLTA Trust, on Tuesday following the closing of the sale of the trust’s shellfish flats to the town for $2 million. “We like them apples!”

    Englander was referring to the trust’s name, which stands for “How Do You Like Them Apples?” and which he said he came up with 20 years ago after engineering the purchase of the same flats for four local shellfishermen for $25,000.

    This week’s transaction was approved by a town meeting vote in April and had been scheduled to close on Sept. 20, but was delayed when a surveyor engaged by the town calculated the acreage at 162 rather than the 254 specified in the trust’s offer.

    Town officials decided to await the results of an appraisal. On Friday, Oct. 25, the town issued a press release: “After receiving the appraisal from Shepard Associates, LLC, the Selectboard unanimously voted to approve the Order of Taking of the entire HDYLTA Trust Property. The appraisal, for $2,450,000, came in well over what Town Meeting voters voted to pay at the April 2019 Town Meeting, which was $2,000,000. The Board anticipates the closing will happen soon. More information will be forthcoming after the closing.”

    The Friday vote was taken by three select board members in closed session. Michael DeVasto and Helen Miranda Wilson recused themselves.

    Details of the closing, for which a new deadline of Oct. 28 had been set by the town and the trust, remained hazy on Tuesday the 29th as the Independent went to press.

    Englander, in a phone interview, said that the closing had taken place as scheduled. “They all agreed when the appraisal came in,” he said. Town Administrator Dan Hoort said by email on Tuesday that the selectmen “signed closing papers on Friday. Sale was recorded on Monday. Transaction is complete.”

    But Janet Reinhart, select board chair, said by email Tuesday, “The closing did not take place yesterday. Waiting to hear from both lawyers.”

    Lawyer Katharine Lord Klein, who represents the town in the negotiation with HDYLTA, did not respond on Tuesday to phone and email messages.

    Efforts by the Independent to obtain a copy of the appraisal were unsuccessful.

    Hoort told the Wellfleet Finance Committee on Oct. 23 that once the closing took place the appraisal would be released as a public document. “Once it closes there’s no reason not to release all the information,” he said.

    On Tuesday, however, Hoort did not respond to questions about why the appraisal had not yet been made public and when he planned to do so. Reinhart said, “I do not have the actual appraisal.”

    ECONOMY

    Oyster Farming Grows in Provincetown

    More grants are available as the industry expands

    By

    Oystering in Provincetown
    Oyster farming in Provincetown is challenging but the view is hard to beat. (Photo courtesy Alfred Famiglietti)

    PROVINCETOWN — As recently as 10 years ago, there was only one oyster farmer in Provincetown, and his efforts were small scale and experimental.

    Nine farmers now land Provincetown oysters at MacMillan Pier and aquaculture operations are approved on 25 acres of deep water in the East End and 38 acres of tidal flats in the West End.

    Total output is still small compared to more famous oyster-producing towns. While Provincetown lands about 250,000 oysters a year, Wellfleet brings in 9 to 10 million.

    But there is more acreage available for grants and no waiting list in Provincetown for them, and the town sees aquaculture as a promising arena for economic development, with plans to get another 100 acres of tidal flats approved.

    economy

    Wellfleet Shellfishermen Organize to Defeat Cutler Bill

    Peake says ‘disastrous’ proposal would spark industry consolidation

    By

    WELLFLEET — Shellfishermen here are mobilizing to oppose state legislation that they say threatens their way of making a living from the sea. The Outer Cape’s state legislators and the Wellfleet Select Board are in their corner.

    Shellfish flats in Wellfleet
    A shellfisherman works the tidal flats in Wellfleet Harbor. (Photos Ed Miller)

    “We need people behind us to fight this thing,” Brett Morse, a member of the shellfish advisory board, told an Aug. 26 meeting of the Wellfleet Community Forum. “They want to take over this town.”

    Ginny Parker, president of the recently formed Wellfleet Shellfishermen’s Association (WSA), said the bill, H.746, proposed by state Rep. Josh Cutler of the Sixth Plymouth District, would alter the way shellfishing rights change hands, giving an advantage to corporations over individual fishermen.

    “We are very concerned about this bill,” said Berta Bruinooge, another shellfish grant holder and former selectman. “It has the potential to change the Wellfleet way of life. We do not want to see any outside entity have anything to do with this. Our number-one aim as a shellfishing organization is to kill this bill.”

    The WSA was formed in February “to protect the character and tradition of Wellfleet’s historic shellfish industry by supporting the long-term viability of our wild harvesters and independent aquaculture farmers.” Its membership has grown to about 150, Parker said.

    Wellfleet is the second-largest shellfish producer in the commonwealth, by volume of oysters landed. The largest is Duxbury, one of three towns in Cutler’s district.

    The bill “would take governance away, and allow transactions to take place between private parties,” Parker told the forum.

    Unlike every other state in the U.S., Massachusetts allows private ownership of tidal flats, the zone between the mean high tide and mean low tide lines. The rights to farm shellfish on the flats are administered by municipalities. In Wellfleet, only town residents can apply for aquaculture grants.

    H.746 would change the existing laws governing shellfishing licenses to allow them to be transferred to “any entity” instead of “persons.” It would also eliminate the current 15-year time limit on such licenses.

    “Once these rights become assignable and transferable, they would become commoditized, and we know the value would escalate,” Parker told the Independent. “It would potentially become farmers selling to the highest bidder, and that would not be good for Wellfleet.”

    Shellfishermen would no longer be entrepreneurs but hourly workers, she said.

    Brett Morse on shellfish flats
    “They want to take over this town,” says shellfisherman Brett Morse of the people behind H.746.

    Shellfishermen have a tendency to be “nonjoiners,” and organizations come and go, but activists from five Lower Cape towns — Chatham, Orleans, Wellfleet, Truro, and Provincetown — recently met and agreed to work together to defeat the Cutler Bill and protect their way of life, Parker said. (A representative from Eastham was invited but could not attend.)

    While shellfishing in Wellfleet is limited to small operations run by individual residents, usually with only a few employees, if any, elsewhere in the state there are large operations such as Island Creek Oysters of Duxbury, which might stand to benefit from the changes proposed in this bill. The Boston Globe reported in 2017 that Island Creek sold more than 10 million oysters that year. The total production of oysters by all Wellfleet shellfishermen was 10.74 million in 2018, according to the state Div. of Marine Fisheries.

    Neither Rep. Cutler nor his staff responded to the Independent’s requests for comment.

    The Cutler Bill has 11 cosponsors, including Rep. David T. Vieira of the Third Barnstable District. Vieira is a Republican; Cutler is a Democrat. The bill was referred to the House Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture on January 22nd and has not moved since that time.

    State Sen. Julian Cyr of Truro was on vacation this week, but his senior adviser Leslie Sandberg said, “ ‘Kill’ is not the language we would use,” but because Sen. Cyr and Rep. Sarah Peake of Provincetown oppose the bill and are in leadership positions, “the bill is unlikely to advance.”

    Peake said in an e-mail, “Under the proposed legislation a grant holder could sell his or her grant directly to a buyer. This raises serious issues about the consolidation of the industry into fewer and fewer hands as those with means will be able to afford an ever-increasing asset.”

    The bill also raises public-health concerns, Peake said, because safe handling practices are administered locally.

    “Shellfishing is a viable industry here on the Cape,” Peake said. “Young people can still afford to enter it and earn a living. While the current system isn’t without its issues, this proposal would be disastrous on many levels.”

    Peake said her staff are prepared to alert local shellfishermen of any hearing date.

    The Wellfleet shellfishermen also have the backing of the town’s select board.

    “We protest the proposed bill which first and foremost undermines a municipality’s role as the authority which manages the use of intertidal land for shellfishing within its borders,” the board said in a letter of support for the WSA.

    The letter suggests that if change is desired it should be made at the local level, not the state. “Don’t fix what isn’t broken,” the letter says. “Let any municipality who wishes to allow licenses to be sold, enact that for themselves.”

     

    economy

    The Eastham Oyster Demands Attention

    Production is growing, but this business is no picnic

    By

    Jared Collins oysters at Town Cove
    Shellfish grower and Eastham Selectman Jared Collins shows off some big old oysters on his grant in Town Cove. (Photo Terry Gallagher)

    EASTHAM — Wellfleet is world-famous for oysters. Neighboring Eastham is not. But there are folks in town who are trying to change that.

    One is 31-year-old Jared Collins, whose family has been here for five generations. Jared has three small shellfish grants in Town Cove, including the first grant in the town of Eastham, dating to 1928. For his father and grandfather, oystering was a hobby, but Jared now makes a living from it. Collins Cove Oyster Farm has one employee, 300,000 to 400,000 oysters in the water, and plans to expand.

    “Oysters are a global market, and they’re good for the environment,” said Collins, who was elected to the Eastham Board of Selectmen in May. “It’s a great business to be in. You get to be out on the water in the sun all day.”

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