In Attendance: W. Burt, L. Byrnes, S. Campbell, J. Caskey, J. Dutra, R. Garrison, C. Goudey,
R. Johnson, R. Karney, C. Mancuso, J. Pierce, K. Rask, R. Smolowitz, S. Soares

Dr. Johnson opened the meeting and all present introduced themselves. Dr. Halvorson was recovering from an injury and was unable to attend.

The purpose of this meeting was to receive updates on the status of all of the sea scallop projects in Massachusetts that are affiliated with our working group. This meeting would serve to prepare Drs. Halvorson and Johnson to report to the September 19th meeting of the Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture (JSA) on progress in developing open ocean sea scallop aquaculture off the coast of Massachusetts. The JSA desired our comments on the role of government at all levels in this area. The third purpose of this meeting was to encourage all in attendance to submit comments to the JSA on the draft National Aquaculture Plan of 1996.

Smolowitz/Goudey -- Seastead Project Ron Smolowitz of Coonamessett Farm, and Cliff Goudey of MIT, and Peter Shelley of the Conservation law Foundation have been spearheading an effort by the Westport Scallop Corporation to set up a 9-square mile area south of Martha's Vineyard for seas scallop and other aquaculture activity. This is a non-proprietary Saltonstall-Kennedy funded project. They see themselves as the first attempt to get approval for such activity in federal waters in the Northeast, and they envisage things will be smoother for follow-on applicants. As a result of their efforts, the framework for reviewing proposals is in place, including a new Aquaculture Subcommittee with industry advisors on the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC).

Smolowitz and Goudey envision an applicant submitting a proposal to the Army Corps of Engineers which would then solicit comments from EPA (re: Clean Water Act), NMFS (re: Endangered Species and Marine Mammals Acts), and the Fish and Wildlife Service (also re: Endangered Species and Marine Mammals Acts). The applicant must also describe the existing commercial users of the site (i.e. fishers and draggers, in this case) and identify the latest statistics that are publicly available. The Army Corps would then send the proposal out to the NEMFC's Aquaculture Subcommittee. Industry advisors on this committee would review the proposal and ensure that no one with an interest in the site has been excluded. They then pass their comments on to the NEFMC.

With this proposed system, a framework under the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act would be established for review of projects at the approved site, avoiding the need for a full Fisheries Management Plan amendment for each new project.

Recently, the project had to change its site, primarily due to opposition from lobstermen. Public hearings were set for the new site and surveys are still needed. However, everyone now seems to be supportive of the project. They are now in the paperwork phase which should take another 90 days or so.

There are still many issues to be resolved, including the definition of fishing, what official distinctions can be made between cultured fish and wild-captured fish for the purposes of regulation, permitting, and sale. Another issue is whether suspended scallop cages are viewed as fishing gear. The Coast Guard and the Army Corp of Engineers have indicated that scallop cages would be considered fishing gear.

Judy Dutra -- Truro Aquaculture Project
Judy Dutra described her sea scallop project in Cape Cod Bay as a Mom and Pop operation. They began in 1993, and had little problems with permits, etc., with the exception of the Endangered Species Act, which protects the Northern right whale. The whales spend 4 months per year (February to May) in the bay, and NMFS is concerned with entanglement of whales in gear lines. They have worked with the Dutras to devise a rig that includes a series of cages on the bottom chained together, and the whole of them connected to a spar buoy. The Dutras are happy with the design, which appears to be simpler, cheaper, and just as effective than their original design. However, they are discovering that predation is high and divers are needed regularly, making the cost prohibitive. They believe this is why aquaculturists in Japan and other countries have opted for suspended cage culture.

The Dutra's found the Coast Guard to be most helpful in placement of buoys to mark the corner of the site to warn of underwater obstruction to draggermen. Otherwise, the Dutras do not require any restriction on surface activity over the site.

The biggest hurdle to this project is acquiring seed. Hatchery seed is by far the most reliable, but cost is limiting. Wild caught seed is still experimental and results will not be seen for another year. The Dutras are working with Mark Simonitsch and the New England Fisheries Development Association to collect spat through bags placed on the bottom for 90 days.

The growth of scallops in cages in Cape Cod Bay is promising, exceeding rates of their neighbors in Canada. They are 2" across at about 15 months of age. The Dutras would like to experiment with rotational bottom farming is economically viable in New Zealand. This kind of bottom ranching requires seed that is large enough to avoid predation and stress. The Dutras believe there is plenty of room on the bottom for everyone who is interested in doing this.

In terms of process, the Dutras said it took a long time to get approval, but they understood because it was the first time such a permit was requested. However, other issues also cause delays. For example, if you want to do a project in a particular site and you want to survey the bottom, there is a 2-year waiting list to get a survey done.

In terms of support for additional growers, the town of Truro is very supportive. The town has renewed the Dutra's lease of their 10-acre site for 5 years. The people of Truro believe that aquaculture can coexist with other users as well as with other marine life. However, John Casket said that NMFS did not foresee new projects from other growers coming on line so soon. The Right Whale Implementation Team is recommending to ban all fixed gear in Cape Cod Bay from February to May, when whales are present. There are only about 300 whales which come into the bay now. Nine were killed last year from boat collisions and some lobster gear. NMFS and the coast Guard are looking for reducing boat speeding the area. This is because recent data suggest that whale populations are rapidly declining and that increased scallop aquaculture may change the availability of plankton to the Right whales. NMFS is supporting research by Russell Decant of the Center for Coastal Studies on plankton dynamics in the area. Judy Dutra believes the decline in plankton is a result of a summer of rain and cold temperatures, not conducive to plankton growth.

Judy Dutra has observed that the cages, which are place on barren sea bottom, generate new habitat for marine plants and animals, and enrich the area. She sees the process analogous to farmers replenishing the soil. Rob Garrison mentioned that many users in Nantucket are turning unproductive bottom into productive areas. In the long run, the Dutras believe it will help the whales.

Another reason for support is that people may want increased shellfish populations in the harbor in order to remove the extra nutrients in the water coming from the sewage outfall pipe. Casket stated that NMFS is not out to get rid of aquaculture. He mentioned that it is the Army Corps that has the regulatory authority and that the Endangered Species Act is powerful. But he indicated that future aquaculture activity, including the renewal of the Dutra project, may be put on hold while impact studies are done. AT least he anticipates that their may have to be a limit imposed on the number of gear or aquaculture sites in Cape cod Bay and a determination of the cumulative effects of these sites before aquaculture can expand much further. These studies could take a long time. Ron Smolowitz stated that the case can and must be made that aquaculture reduces the take on whales compared with traditional boating and fishing activities. Judy Dutra believes that we can create areas where aquaculture and whales can coexist.

Ron Smolowitz mentioned that there are groups that will be looking for other barriers to throw in the way of future aquaculture projects. Our goal should be to reach the groups that go to public hearings and deal with their concerns ahead of time. He also mentioned the problem that, the way the Endangered Species Act is written, the proposers have to prove that their project will not have an impact.

This proof requires studies that small operators cannot afford, and this could cripple the development of the industry.

Rob Garrison -- Nantucket Project
Rob Garrison has been working with the Nantucket Project to set up a hatchery in Nantucket. His organization has successfully raised bay scallops, and has done some sea scallops. He feels that a sea scallop hatchery is possible, though sea scallops take 3-4 times as long to grow as bay scallops, and are therefore less economic. There is also a smaller window of acceptable temperatures for sea scallops. Rob feels that a sea scallop hatchery should be set up north of Cape Cod, where the water is cooler. Rob cited again the success of the New Zealand scallop project, which began as a government funded pilot scale project for enhancement of the fishery that was later supported by a tax all fishermen must pay for fishing permits. This kind of initial government support is especially important for species that are less economic to raise. Garrison sees the sea scallop hatchery as a pilot scale government enhancement project.

An advantage of bottom culture is there is very little tending labor required and no fouling problems. Garrison agrees that the cage system is most advantageous and will affect the overall economics of the growout of scallops. They are moving from suspended culture to cage culture for bay scallops.

Garrison is 2.5 years into a 3 year project with the goal of self sufficiency in bay scallops. They were federally funded to start, and then funding was cut due to the change to Republican control of Congress last year. The project also experienced severe problems with lack of state and federal coordination and communication. Understanding and improving this state/federal relationship is something that needs urgent attention.

The project focussed on the enhancement of the bay scallop fishery, using aquaculture techniques and the training/retraining of fishermen and others. Growout was provided in town-designated sites, with most of the seed raised going to the town for enhancement of town scallop beds. Eventually, scallops were to be grown out to commercial market size to sell. The state was the main impediment to efforts to commercialize the project. Although verbal understandings and verbal approvals for required permits were given 8 months in advance, when the paperwork was to finalize it, the state chose to interpret the regulations differently, and did not allow them to commercialize the project. The state said that they couldn't give Garrison's group the selling permit necessary because they needed a private lease site, a dealer's permit in order to sell the harvest, and part of an aquaculture permit from the Division of Marine Fisheries. Garrison stressed the need for very clear understandings and increased cooperation between all levels of government so that efforts are not wasted. Garrison's group lost a critical $30,000 in income as a result of this lack of clarity.

Why, with all of the positive things going for it, couldn't this project happen? Garrison, Smolowitz and Dutra all agreed that the permits are the main road blocks. The permitting here doesn't compare to anywhere else. In New Zealand, when the federal government was going to close the fishery, private industry took the lead in a public/private partnership. Here, the federal government seems to encourage public/private cooperation, but the state does not encourage it in aquaculture. Garrison believes it would be worthwhile for the state to support a sea scallop hatchery and enhancement project on a small scale. If results are encouraging, as they were in New Zealand, then the government should encourage expansion through a public/private venture with eventual operation completely private. In Chile, Fundacion Chile, a quasi-public agency, was instrumental in developing the aquaculture by supporting R&D, providing financing, and started many aquaculture projects with private partners, eventually turning them completely to the private sector.

Mark Simonitsch -- Fish Weirs, Inc.
Mr. Simonitsch was unable to attend the meeting but submitted the following summary in writing.

Mark Simonitsch is part of a sea scallop project run by the New England Fisheries Development Association that is funded by a Saltonstall-Kennedy grant. The objective of this project is to collect spat, determine if spat collection enhances local scallop populations, grow juveniles to market size, document the costs of scallop aquaculture, and test market cultured scallops. The project involves four spat collection sites and three grow-out sites. This project has been delayed at 2 collection sites and 1 of the growout sites due to problems with obtaining permits. At his site in Chatham, Mark Simonitsch is still waiting for the state of MA to make a site visit, something they have been trying to schedule since February. (Delays in permitting for the Smolowitz/Goudy site mean that spat collection gear will probably be in place on their site this year.)

The biggest problem the project has encountered has been obtaining juvenile scallops. The original design of the project was to purchase 10mm scallops from Canada. In the interest of cooperating with other Saltonstall-Kennedy funded projects, much of the project was redesigned to accommodate these larger scallops (50mm) that were to come from Ron Smolowitz. This included buying grow-out gear to accommodate larger scallops than originally planned. The delays of permitting with the Smolowitz site meant that seed had to be obtained from another source. Because of the larger mesh gear that was obtained, the project has had to buy larger and more expensive seed.

Mark Simonitsch has had spat collection bags at the Dutra's site in Truro and at other sites through the summer. The plan is to find optimal places and techniques for spat collection so that future harvests can be better timed and more cost-efficient.

Mark indicates that the major impediments to his project are that the New England Fisheries Management Council decision-making process has failed and is continuing to fail. He feels that a major problem with this process is that the Council is peopled with political appointments rather than people with the expertise to evaluate aquaculture proposals.

Richard Karney -- Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group
Richard Karney, director of the Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group, has been funded by a FIG grant to develop hatchery and field culture methods for sea scallops. So far, he has successfully brought one brood from spat. These were grown to the larval stage, cultured to 2mm indoors in nursery rafts in inshore waters, and were planned to be transferred to the various sites.

A major impediment to his project was that he could not release seed to anyone who didn't have all the proper permits in place. He had to hold the animals in the inshore nursery rafts for too long during warm weather, and lost 80% of the animals while sites were waiting to obtain permits. This represents a tremendous loss of labor and compromises the effectiveness of these exploratory projects that are geared toward helping the industry acquire the knowledge to test and optimize production methods.

Rick Karney feels that the regulatory environment is the major impediment to the development of sea scallop aquaculture. He would like to see a time limit put on the permitting process such that, if an application has not been acted upon within 60 days, the permit is automatically granted.

Karl Rask
Karl Rask of the Massachusetts Aquaculture Association is now involved in raising sea clams, but is looking at a scallop site in Cape Cod Bay. He believes that other countries focus upon how they can approve offshore aquaculture proposals, while this country concentrates on how we can deny them. In this country, we allow wild scallop fisheries, even thought the economics are in favor of aquaculture. We require culturists to acquire scallop fishing permits for a certain number of boat/fishing days when they are not needed. He would like the Fisheries Management Plan to be rewritten to specifically include aquaculture. This would mean that aquaculture permits would be concerned with growing days rather than boat/fishing days, and sea scallop gear would be defined as fishing gear.

Rask believes that we need a management scheme which promotes aquaculture. Government management now is too restrictive, limited to too few people who have no experience with the subject, and generates a tendency to deny rather than facilitate applications. He and Smolowitz agree that we don't need a new agency, but a mechanism to find solutions for the concerns about aquaculture. Smolowitz feels that, at this stage, the easiest way to move forward is through the Fisheries Management Council. The Council has created a framework for handling aquaculture proposals. Smolowitz sees a mix of large independent groups with small sites, using sea ranching, hatcheries, and nurseries. They also discussed reserving some percentage, say 1% of the 60,000 scallop fishing days to growers.

Bob Edgar -- Sea Scallop Aquaculture Site Mapping Project
Dr. Robert Edgar, Chairman of Biology at UMass Dartmouth, is putting together a mapping operation for determination of best sites for sea scallops of the coast of Massachusetts. His operating system will be functional this fall, and the databases and software will be put on the web for culturists to use. He has applied for an Northeastern Regional Aquaculture Center (NRAC) grant to support the work. Besides using existing databases from a number of sources, he is working with a student to measure chemical and physical parameters to determine those that might be important siting characteristics. The group felt that it was important to stick to one species, sea scallops, at the moment. This would help keep the Council attention focused, and give Bob a chance to work out the kinks in the system on one species before moving to others.

Rollin Johnson led a discussion about the draft National Aquaculture Development Plan (NADP). He stressed that the Joint Subcommittee on Aquaculture is soliciting input and recommendations about the federal role in facilitating the development of aquaculture in a supportive but environmentally safe manner. Smolowitz was concerned that the NADP is written by environmentalists, is very restrictive to the aquaculturist, and makes compliance possible for only large corporations. Rask noted that, due to the economics of the wild scallop fishery, management of scallops must include aquaculture. But the existing natural resource management laws are not really relevant to aquaculture. Smolowitz feels that we need to modify the existing management system or create a totally new one. Perhaps this could involve a combination of private leases and enhancement. A marketing program is also needed. That is, do we want one large company or a cooperative group with cooperative research (like the Ocean Spray Cooperative).

Sandy Campbell
Sandy Campbell brought the group up to speed on fundraising activities for various projects our group hopes to launch. We have applied to AT&T for an "aquaculture interaction project" involving NH, MA, and RI schools and aquaculture ventures. Nine or ten demonstration/education projects are proposed. Twenty students would work at either WHOI or UMass Dartmouth, and the for aquaculture.

The next Sea Scallop Working Group meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, October 16th, 1996 at 9:30 - noon at the Cape Cod Economic Development Council meeting room. The meeting will feature a presentation by Don Bishop, the North American representative of a Japanese Fish Net Company, on the experiences of the Japanese aquaculture industry. A detailed agenda will follow.

Minutes were prepared by Dr. Rollin Johnson and Chrystal Mancuso.