ROWLEY — Shellfish Constable Jack Grundstrom wasn't feeling optimistic this week about the easing of rain closure rules for shellfishermen digging in Plum Island Sound.
Grundstrom met with Division of Marine Fisheries Biologist Paul Somerville last Friday and was told the department hasn't gathered enough evidence to support decreasing the number of days flats are closed following major rain events.
"I don't know what I can really tell you," Grundstrom reported. "I didn't get any good news."
Grundstrom has been pushing for changes to the rain closure rules since last summer, arguing Rowley's case to DMF that strict regulatory changes made in the last 10 years have improved the water quality in Plum Island Sound. The town mandated the replacement of many old septic systems along the river, for instance, and a new pump-out boat in Rowley Harbor has decreased the number of leisure craft pumping waste directly into the watershed.
But as Somerville explained it, proving it's safe to ease up on those rules is a complicated process.
"They've replaced an awful lot of systems," Somerville said. "Can I tell you today they made a difference? I can't tell you that. It probably did in the Rowley River, but the improvements might not be enough to tip the scale."
Rowley shares with Newbury and Ipswich the body of water made famous for the sweet Little Neck "Ipswich" clams harvested there. Fed by plankton floating down from the Great Marsh — a vast, pristine series of salt marshes, tidal creeks and estuaries — shellfish from Plum Island Sound are touted as the tastiest in the world.
But because of the closures mandated by the state, fishermen have been complaining they're losing business to suppliers from Canada, Maine and Maryland, who can offer local restaurants a steady supply of clams during busy summer seasons without disruption. Many suppliers even claim the "Ipswich" brand, despite being trucked in from areas as far north as Nova Scotia.
"Most people who get an Ipswich clam think it came from Ipswich, but that's not the case," Grundstrom said. "Some come from places far remote from here."
Somerville sympathized with the shell fishermen, but he's made no promises that tests he takes in the process of re-evaluating rain closure rules would give them the result they're hoping for. The town of Rowley, he said, is not the only town having an impact on the health of Plum Island Sound.
"You can get good water quality in one part of the Sound, mediocre in another part, and bad water quality in another part," Somerville said. "It all comes together. There's no wall at the Rowley/Newbury line or the Rowley/Ipswich line, to keep water in or out. It's a system. It all mixes together."
Despite hundreds of water samples collected over the past year, Somerville collected his first clam sample from Rowley River just last week. He will have to take several more summer samples in order to make a determination about levels of fecal coliform found in the Sound during the warm summer months.
"On the last rain I did take some clam samples and water samples," Somerville said. "I hope I can get enough samples by the end of the summer to be able to make a decision."
At issue is whether Somerville can collect clams on the fourth, fifth and sixth day following a heavy rain event, since those are the days currently restricted to shellfishermen based on historic test data. If you want to prove a clam dug four days after a half-inch rainfall event is safe for consumption, as opposed to the five days currently mandated by the state, then Mother Nature has to deliver at just the right time, Somerville said.
"It has to rain on a Friday or Saturday," Somerville said. "If I bring the sample in on Thursday, it's no good because it's a two-day test."
Current regulation requires shell beds be closed for five days following a half-inch of rainfall, and for eight days following one inch. Somerville said he needs to see a pattern emerging from a series of tests before he will decide to change the rules, and he still maintains there's a chance the new tests will result in rain closure rules actually becoming more stringent than the current five- to eight- day closures.
"It could go from five to eight days to six to nine days," he said. "But it's more likely that things will stay the same or might get a bit better."
