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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 2
October 2006
Red tide aid disbursement
Maine
AUGUSTA, ME – US Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME) announced on June 15 that they had succeeded in securing a $5 million appropriation to assist New England shellfish fishermen who were affected by the devastating red tide outbreak of 2005.
Maine’s portion of the disaster relief comes in at $2 million.
In early August, the state’s Department of Marine Resources (DMR) held meetings in Whiting, Portland, and Ellsworth to get feedback from members of the shellfish industry on a preliminary proposal the agency submitted to the federal government on July 14 as requested by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
DMR’s preliminary proposal designated $1,230,000 for direct aid to harvesters of wild softshell clams, mussels, and Mahogany quahogs, as well as to oyster and mussel growers and shellfish dealers. The proposal included possible eligibility criteria to receive aid.
Statewide, the potential number of applicants totaled about 2,016 individuals.
DMR also proposed spending $770,000 of the $2 million on research programs, including the following:
• A biotoxin depuration study;
• Expansion of a biotoxin laboratory;
• Expansion of bay studies and management and of inshore quantitative phytoplankton monitoring; and
• Enrichment of the state’s enforcement and monitoring response to red tide events.
Maine Seafood Alliance
While individual shellfish fishermen and groups offered varying opinions during the three meetings, a new Downeast shellfish industry group, the Maine Seafood Alliance (MSA), also came forward to offer a position.
Individuals involved with the shellfish industry in Hancock and Washington counties formed the MSA in the fall of 2005 to provide a strong voice for the region’s shellfish harvesting, processing, and selling sectors.
The group is currently receiving administrative and technical assistance from the US Department of Agriculture’s Down East Resource Conservation & Development Area Office in Cherryfield.
At its July 25 meeting, the MSA agreed that, although it fully understood the need for further red tide research, it would strongly urge that all of the $2 million in disaster relief funds be directed to where it was needed the most – to the harvesters of wild shellfish.
However, some of the shellfish fishermen who have participated in research programs, primarily in the Casco Bay region, thought the funding should be split between relief and research.
For more info
In mid-September, the DMR was in the process of finalizing an amended proposal for NMFS’s approval.
For further information on the disaster assistance and distribution proposals, contact Deirdre Gilbert at (207) 624-6576 or e-mail <Deirdre.Gilbert@maine.gov>.
For further information on the Maine Seafood Alliance or the Down East Resource Conservation & Development Area Office, call Gary Edwards at (207) 546-2368 or e-mail him at <gary.edwards@me.usda.gov>.
Rosanne Mizzoni
Massachusetts
NEW BEDFORD, MA - Massachusetts shellfish harvesters, aquaculturists, and primary dealers who were hit hard by the red tide disaster in 2005 will see some monetary aid soon, possibly by the end of the year.
In mid-September, the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) was pulling together plans to form a committee made up of individuals representing all the different sectors of the industry to take a first crack at determining how the approximately $2.5 million in federal aid should be distributed to the individuals it was meant for.
“We’ll work with them to get a sense of what will work and how to go about it,” said Mike Hickey, DMF’s chief shellfish biologist.
After that, the agency will hold a series of public meetings, probably in November, to float the committee’s ideas. If all goes well, the next step will be cutting the checks.
“No guarantees, but we’d love to get this done before Christmas,” Hickey said.
The 2005 red tide event in Massachusetts was the worst recorded since at least 1972 in terms of the level and range of toxins documented in the marine environment and the extent of paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) closures that resulted.
With the exception of Boston harbor, Buzzards Bay, and the south coast of Cape Cod, virtually all of the Massachusetts coastline was closed to shellfish harvesting from spring through late fall.
Hickey gave a ballpark estimate of at least “a couple thousand” people who might be eligible for a share of the relief money. Members of the New England congressional delegation initially requested $20 million in aid but ultimately had to put up a fierce fight just to get the $5 million.
Beefed-up monitoring
Of the money headed to Massachusetts, DMF will probably use about $600,000 to improve its red tide monitoring and testing capabilities.
Hickey said he wants to set up an early warning system made up of four buoys attached to floating mussel cages stationed offshore just inside state waters – one off Cape Ann and the other three in a line from Marshfield to Provincetown. Mussels would be collected and tested weekly early in the PSP season and then several times a week “once things start heating up,” Hickey said.
DMF also plans to put more personnel in the lab during the PSP season.
“This would accomplish a couple of things,” Hickey explained. “It would increase public health protection and help us fine-tune where closures need to be and allow us to reopen shellfish areas faster.”
Lorelei Stevens
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