No clampdown on clammers

Scarborough Town Council refuses committee call to cut shellfish license count.

SCARBOROUGH — If Scarborough’s Shellfish Conservation Committee had its way, there’d be 22 fewer recreational clammers on the mud flats this year. But, for the second year in a row, the Town Council has refused a call to limit the number of licenses.

According to committee chairman Robert Willette, his group recommended a cut in the number of residential licenses given per year from 200 to 180 because some went unsold by the Aug. 1 deadline, at which point they were let go on a first-come, first-serve basis to nonresidents. The committee also called for a cut in nonresident licenses, from 20 to 18.

“I want to make sure I understand,” said Councilor Jessica Holbrook. “The drop had noting to do with [available] stock, it just had to do strictly with . . . “

“Politics,” offered council Chairman Ron Ahlquist.

“Well, with not wanting outsiders, I guess,” continued Holbrook. “It had nothing to do with the clams themselves?”

Willette said he voted against the recommendation, and it fell to Scarborough’s marine resource management officer, David Corbeau, to answer Holbrook’s question.

“From my understanding, from the motion that was made at the [committee] meeting, I guess that would be correct,” he said. “A couple of the committee members don’t like them [licenses] going out to non-residents.”

“Personally, I’d like to see it go back to where it was,” said Ahlquist. “I think it was changed for the wrong reasons.”

Corbeau said that when a resident license is sold to a nonresident, the town doubles it’s money, from $25 to $50. The town also offers $10 day permits depending on conditions, up to a limit of 10 per day. Those typically sell to nonresidents once the regular licenses sell out.

“”We have a lot of non-residents who what a recreational license,” said Corbeau. “We always sell out. If we do away with those licenses, there’s revenue that’s going to be lost.”

The council voted unanimously to keep recreational licenses at the current limits, 200 for residents and 20 for non-residents. Also weighing in to the council decision was the fact that, despite seeking a limit on recreational shellfish licenses, the committee asked for the addition of two resident commercial licenses, as well as one more senior commercial license (for diggers age 60 and over), to allow for 27 and four, respectively.

Willett said that decision was based on survey data of the annual haul, along with the addition of new digging areas this past year along the Nonesuch River. However, Corbeau pointed out that the new digging areas are conditional, opened dependent on rainfall.

“I think the shellfish committee went above and beyond,” said Corbeau. “I personally don’t see an increase in the number of clams that are out there.”

“Do the new clam flats that are reliant on runoff from the rains, does that really give a viable commercial business to two new licenses?” asked Councilor Carol Rancourt.

“I don’t see, and the surveys don’t show, that there’s an increase in the number of clams out there this year,” said Corbeau. “Over the next couple of years it looks like there’s some seed out there that it might get a little bit better.

“In essence, what we’re trying to do is balance the whole system,” said Corbeau. “If we did what a lot of people want us to do, we wouldn’t have a shellfish industry in the town of Scarborough. The guys who make a living off clamming wouldn’t be making a living. They’d be starving, or doing something else. Adding two I think is a great gesture.”

Scarborough’s commercial clamming licenses can be retained perpetually, once awarded, provided the clammer continues to meet certain criteria, such as performing 12 hours of conservation work annually. Despite that, there are some commercial licenses that “don’t get used a whole lot,” said Corbeau, adding that desultory hauling by a few holders of commercial licenses is what allows the town to offer as many recreational licenses as it does, while also enabling it to offer two new commercial licenses this year. In addition, he said, one holder of a commercial license has turned his in, making three that will be up for grabs come auction time this year.

“There will be 30 people who will put in for those three licenses,” said Corbeau. “There’s a huge, huge want out there. It’s just managing the license numbers to the best that we can do. People will keep coming at it until our resource is gone, so we have to manage it as best we can.

“The state says we manage it pretty well,” said Corbeau. “We’ve been No. 1 in the state for 10 years.”