Grab your drags and deck boots, Menemsha Pond is now open to scalloping as of Wednesday, Dec. 4.
At an Aquinnah selectmen meeting Tuesday, shellfish constable Chip Vanderhoop presented the recommendation of the shellfish committee to open on that date, but issues were raised surrounding the fairness of the long-form and short-form application process.
Last year, the scalloping season in Menemsha Pond was virtually nonexistent, so some scallopers who would normally be ready and raring to get out on their boat either waited to buy licenses or didn’t buy one at all.
This year, as Menemsha Pond opens to commercial shellfishing, those who didn’t fill out a license form last year will have to fill out a long-form application and submit it to the selectmen for them to sign.
“Chip came in and told me that last year there was essentially no scallop season,” town administrator Jeff Madison said. “If we open the scallop season tomorrow, those people who have to fill out the long form won’t be able to go out right away.”
Madison said all long-form applications must come before selectmen at a scheduled meeting to be signed, and the earliest selectmen could meet is Friday. This means scallopers who have yet to fill out their long form and have it signed by selectmen will miss out on the first two days of the season.
But selectboard chair Juli Vanderhoop said that every time someone in town needed a long form signed in the past, they showed up at her door asking for a signature.
“It’s always been that way, they can seek out a selectboard member and ask to have it signed. It didn’t have to come to a meeting,” Vanderhoop said. “I disagree entirely, and actually take some offense because I am not trying to be unfair to anyone in this community.”
“You just can’t do that anymore,” Madison said.
He referred to an incident in 2017 where Aquinnah shellfish committee chair Buddy Vanderhoop sued the selectmen because another scalloper, Giles Welch, applied for a commercial shellfishing license and was issued one despite objections from the shellfish committee. Vanderhoop filed a petition with the attorney general claiming that selectmen violated the open meeting law by not signing Welch’s form in a scheduled meeting.
“The attorney general said selectmen cannot make a decision to issue a license that way because it’s tantamount to having a meeting without proper notice,” Madison said.
Madison said everyone should have the opportunity to go scalloping on the first day of the season.
“Just because you are required to fill out a longer form, you should not be disqualified from going that first day,” Madison said. “There is a fairness issue here.”
Madison said selectmen can’t bypass state regulations, or else they open themselves up to lawsuits.
“I’m not fielding any complaints from those people who feel prejudiced about not being able to go on the first day,” Madison said.
Chip Vanderhoop said the state allows all towns to open scalloping on Oct. 1, and anybody that “has the mind” to go scalloping is going to be ready to go with their license signed and their boat in the water.
“It’s not about fairness, it’s about what happens traditionally. If you want to go scalloping, you are going to be ready to go, even if you have to fill out the long form,” Chip said. “If anyone cries about it, it’s their own fault.”
Selectmen Jim Newman suggested having a meeting on Friday, Dec. 6, where all long-form applications will be signed and licenses will be issued.
Madison reiterated his concerns over folks who might feel neglected because of missed days out on the water.
“If you give a permit to Charlie but not to Billy because Billy didn’t go last year because there were no scallops, even though you know Billy owns a house up here and has lived here all his life, people are going to be upset,” Madison said.
Vanderhoop said she is a scalloper herself, and knows that everyone made up their own minds last year about whether to get their license.
“It’s your choice to not be out there and lift the weight of those drags for five hours — they had every right to go last year,” she said.
In other shellfishing business, Jim Sanfilippo came before selectmen to renew his five-year grant lease at Menemsha Pond, where he grows and harvests quahogs.
Sanfilippo said this year he experienced an invasion of sea ducks that ate the majority of his quahog seed. “Those ducks wiped out our largest planting to date. I think it’s because of the sheer number of plantings — I had never done a planting of that size before,” Sanfilippo said. “I think it flagged the sea ducks to move in on it.”
According to Sanfilippo, after pesky crabs that feed on quahog seed go into hibernation for the winter, he removes the protective ground netting over the seed, and has never had any problems. “Until now; this came as a huge surprise to me,” Sanfilippo said.
Sanfilippo said he spoke with an eyewitness who saw the ducks feeding in the break close to shore. “They use their bills as bulldozers and upturn the seed, then when the sand settles, they go back and peck them all up,” Sanfilippo said.
A special town meeting alternative
Madison brought up the issue of achieving quorum at special town meetings in Aquinnah, after a recent scheduled town meeting did not reach one.
“We never got a quorum for our last special town meeting. This is presenting a problem in that we are going to have a significant shortfall in our legal expenses,” Madison said.
According to Madison, several other cash issues need to be remedied, including appropriation of funds for the town’s share of the sheriff’s communications networks, along with expenditures of Community Preservation committee money.
The greatest deficit the town is in, according to Madison, has to do with the ongoing legal battle with the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) over their casino project.
“In conversations with town counsel, I have learned that we are going to need to pay something on our outstanding balance for legal expenses by the end of the year,” Madison said.
He suggested having a special town meeting in mid- to late January to address these outstanding costs.
Newman said this set of warrant articles should be placed on a ballot and voted on in an election. “We need everybody’s input; this should not be a decision made by a handful of voters in a quorum — this is crucial,” Newman said. “We have a ballot vote for overrides, why not for this?”
Newman said not all the money would have to be raised and appropriated for outstanding legal expenses, but instead could be transferred from the stabilization fund.
But Madison said holding an election isn’t as simple as sending out a ballot, it’s a process.
“In order to have an election, you have to open a registration in order for new voters to register, and you have to notify everyone about the election ahead of time. There is a lot more involved,” Madison said.
Ultimately, no decision was made.