Westport Island Shellfish Committee

October 3, 2006 meeting minutes

 

The following is a summary of discussions held at the October 3, 2006 Shellfish committee meeting.

 

The committee met at 6:00PM in the town office.  Committee members in attendance were Joe Donohue, Lincoln Richardson and Clement Sledge.  Also attending the meeting were Ron Aho area Biologist and Forest Smith a commercial harvester.

 

Minutes:     A motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes from the September meeting as read.  This was approved by the members of the committee.  After signing the minutes by committee members, a copy of the minutes will be given to the town selectmen and a copy will be posted at the town office. An additional e-copy will be sent to the town administrative assistant.

 

Warden’s report:  Neither Lincoln nor Joe had anything to report.

 

 

McCarty Cove Seeding:           The committee discussed the removal of the netting and sampling at McCarty Cove.  The committee will meet at the Cove on Saturday October 14 at 11:00 AM, take the necessary samples and remove the netting which must be removed in October.  Ron recommended to the committee that a sampling of one square foot should be taken from the netting areas and one square foot should be taken randomly outside the netting area for each placed net when the netting is removed.

 

Accident Insurance Coverage:         This item was discussed with George Richardson.  George will let the committee know if Insurance coverage is available for committee members.

 

Squam Creek Harvesting:      Joe reported to the committee that he and Forest Smith had visited the various newly opened clam flats.  Subsequent to this visit, Forest had made a preliminary survey of available harvestable clams in these new flats.  Based upon this information Joe and Lincoln recommended to the committee that restricting commercial harvesting in Squam Creek as well as from the white tower at the mouth of Squam Creek to Davies Allen Dock should be implemented at this time.  The committee all agreed to this proposal.  The volunteer time spent by Forest doing this review with Joe was approximately four hours.

 

Shellfish ordinance:      Joe will add the following “No person holding a Commercial State of Maine Shellfish License will be permitted to purchase a Recreational Shellfish License on Westport Island” to our current ordinance. He will send it to DMR for approval and when received back, will send it to the BOS for approval.

 

Next Meeting:  The next meeting will be held on November 14 starting at 6:00 PM. at the town office.

 

 

Chairman – Dave Bertran                _______________________________

 

Vice Chairman - Clement Sledge                ________________________________

 

Secretary – Joe Donohue                              _______________________________

 

Member– Jerry Bodmer                               _______________________________

 

Member – Donna Curry                                _______________________________                                                             

                                                                                   

Member – Lincoln Richardson    (alt)         _______________________________

 

                                                                                                 

Member – Mike Muchmore (alt.)                 _______________________________

 

 

                                                                                            Signatures

 

 

Submitted by Joe Donohue - Secretary