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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 2
October 2007
RI council clarifies aquaculture authority
NARRAGANSETT, RI – The Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council addressed a number of new business issues, including updates on aquaculture management, legislative proposals, and whelk recommendations during its Sept. 10 meeting.
David Alves of the Coastal Resource Management Council (CRMC) gave the council a comprehensive overview of progress that the CRMC and its working groups have made on Rhode Island’s evolving aquaculture management plan.
Alves said those involved in the project and members of the public have shown interest in gathering good biological science on the state’s salt ponds and that he has been working closely with the Salt Ponds Coalition, a nonprofit group based in Rhode Island, to gather such information.
Alves also reported that Meagan Higgins of Roger Williams University, who is focusing on the social impacts of aquaculture in the state, has made an effort to include more stakeholders in the development of the plan to better understand the impacts of aquaculture operations on the community.
The marine fisheries council’s role in advising CRMC on such aquaculture matters also was clarified. State legal counsel found that, while a council recommendation on an aquaculture lease is not imperative to a lease approval, it is statutory protocol for the council to provide a recommendation on a lease proposal before the lease is addressed by CRMC.
The final aquaculture agenda item was a lease expansion request by Bill Silkes, who was seeking a five-acre expansion of his 15-acre aquaculture farm. The council voted unanimously to support a recommendation for expansion.
After the vote and at the request of council Chairman Mark Gibson, Alves clarified that a lease expansion is only applicable through the extent of the original lease, meaning that once a lease runs out, the expansion does as well, and does not carry with it an extended period of use.
2008 legislation
Bob Ballou, representing the Department of Environmental Management (DEM), reminded the council that DEM is working to create an omnibus legislative proposal for 2008.
Ballou said he would like to make a list of issues to be addressed in the proposal by the end of the year. The proposal will include both statutory and regulatory changes and will deal with many issues heard by both DEM and the council during the past year.
The proposal will need to be sponsored by a legislator and introduced into the General Assembly during next year’s session.
Whelk, scallops
The council also formulated a number of whelk recommendations for the DEM director.
Council member Stephen Parente made a motion to recommend that shellfish water quality closures not affect the whelk fishery since whelk feed differently than filter-feeding shellfish.
He also proposed recommending a change in the tending requirement of whelk pots, extending it from seven to 15 days, and the dismissal of the bait bag requirement. As well, Parente included in his motion a possession limit instead of a pot limit due to the difficulty in creating and enforcing a pot limit. The complete motion was passed in a six-to-zero vote with one abstention.
Advisory panels
The council decided to add a scallop dredging user group slot to the groundfish advisory panel membership and to begin seeking scallop fishery representatives to serve on the groundfish panel.
The council named a number of people to the newly created groundfish/federally managed species advisory panel to represent specific users, including:
• David Preble – chairman;
• Rick Bellavance – hook and line;
• Doug Kissick – trawl inshore;
• Paul Westscott – trawl offshore;
• Stephan A. Arnold – trawl offshore alternate;
• Luke Wheeler – fish pots;
• Ted Platz – gillnet offshore;
• Al Conti – seafood dealer;
• John B. Troiano III – recreational users;
• William Bento – recreational users alternate; and
• Jim White – charter.
The marine fisheries council’s next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 1 at 6 pm at the University of Rhode Island Bay Campus.
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