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Cape fishermen seek help to tide them over financially

Cape Cod Times

June 17, 2005

By DOUG FRASER STAFF WRITER and DAVID KIBBE TIMES BOSTON BUREAU ORLEANS - They are used to the vicissitudes of nature, the roller coaster ride of feast, sometimes famine. But as the red tide bloom lingers, fishermen are watching their nest eggs shrink away.

''They know how to survive,'' said Chris Austin of the Interfaith Council for the Homeless that serves the Lower Cape. ''When they have to come in for help, it's a hard step to take and an honest thing to hate to do. But when things start to look like, 'it's not just yourself but your children,' you have to take a look at what's out there for help.''

The Alexandrium algae, known as red tide, have closed shellfish beds and aquaculture grants across the state and the Cape. The algae produce a poison known as a saxotoxin that can cause paralysis and sometimes death in people, marine mammals, birds and fish when they're concentrated in shellfish. The closures are expected to last a few more weeks until state tests show the shellfish are safe to eat. Lobsters, crabs, shrimp and cleaned muscle meat from sea scallops are not affected by the toxin and are safe to eat. It is also safe to swim.

Lower Cape towns from Brewster down to Provincetown, are completely closed to commercial and recreational shellfishing. Nantucket is also closed. Harwich, Bourne, Falmouth, Mashpee, Barnstable, Yarmouth, Dennis and Martha's Vineyard are either open or partially open. Sandwich has been closed for shellfishing for several years due to coliform bacteria.

The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries yesterday announced that the waters along the island's southern coast to the western tip of Gay Head are closed to shellfishing. The water around Nomans Land Island is also included in this newest closure.

Previously, only the eastern half of the island's southern coast - largely waters south and east of Edgartown - had been affected.

Austin said shellfishermen are not her agency's typical clients. They know that eventually the red tide will end and the shellfish beds will re-open and they will have money again.

''They're trying not to get too far behind on their monthly bills,'' she said. ''They just need something until they can back to doing what they do best.''

Austin said the network of social services that covers the Lower Cape has been talking and planning a coordinated effort to help with food, paying rent, mortgage and bills and other necessary funds to keep those impacted by the closures from falling behind financially.

''These are the people we see at football and baseball games, at the school play and the community festivals. They are our neighbors and friends,'' she said. Austin said her organization has had almost a dozen inquiries about their services. Inquiries are also trickling into the state Career Center in Hyannis, where unemployment compensation is available.

Massachusetts officials are still waiting for a decision on a request for help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. A FEMA disaster declaration, which must be approved by President George W. Bush, would make the shellfishing industry eligible for unemployment benefits.

Yesterday another federal agency took action. U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez declared a disaster in six Massachusetts counties.

The designation means the state now qualifies for millions of dollars in federal aid, which could range from cash payments to shellfishermen to research grants to prevent and contain future red tide outbreaks. The disaster declaration includes the Cape and islands, Plymouth and Bristol counties, and the North Shore of Boston.

The shellfishing industry and state officials are concerned that the red tide outbreak, rare in state waters, could occur again next spring.

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said the state would use the disaster declaration to pursue National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grants to study red tide outbreaks, possibly through UMass Dartmouth and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Doug Fraser can be reached at dfraser@capecodonline.com. Staff writer Joe Heitz contributed to this report.