As the massive Salem to Weymouth gas pipeline project winds down over budget and way behind schedule, it was supposed to be done in June, yet another fiasco has developed involving the lobster resource in the area.  This time it wasn’t the pipeline people but rather the Commonwealth’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that has managed to stumble over the rock of common sense. 

The DEP is the state agency that issues the permits and one of its requirements has been that the project must, after burying the pipe, return the bottom contour to within one foot of the way it was before they started.  This seemed at first to be a reasonable requirement.  As prescribed in the project’s agenda, rock had been dumped and concrete mats had been laid over the buried pipe to protect it.  The plan was then to drag a bar along the rock line and level it to fulfill the permit obligation.

 A strange or maybe not a strange thing happened, however, on the way to getting all this done.  Lobsters moved into the area and found that the rock line was a great place to live even if it might only be for a temporary stay in the area.  The project had inadvertently created a better habitat and the lobsters found it.  Fishermen working along the line in November noted that a new wave of eggers, lots of them, had taken up residence in the area.

 As the project moved along it became time to level those rocks.  The MLA, as well as the Division of Marine Fisheries, requested that the DEP change its permit mandate and direct the project managers to cancel this part of the job or at least delay the process because of the influx of lobsters that had moved in.  The project managers, naturally, were receptive to the idea of eliminating this part of the requirement.

 In late November came word that the DEP was not supportive of the idea and expected the leveling job to be done as per the permit requirement.

 The Division of Marine Fisheries, the lobster fishermen and everyone else involved in lobster management have spent countless hours and even years designing plans that all add up to trying to increase the number of egg bearing lobsters and then also to protect them in one way or another.  It is ironic and discouraging that this other state agency would not heed the comments and advice from their sister agency or from the industry.  Instead, they apparently have pushed ahead compelling the project to level the line and potentially kill many eggers as well as other lobsters and destroy what has become good lobster habitat.  One might wonder if the Department of Environmental Protection is really interested is protecting this part of the environment or just interested in protecting words in a written permit. 

As an aside, it is interesting but not surprising that the so-called “environmental - conservation” network have been nowhere to be found and knew nothing about this.  They are, however, always around when the issue is stopping fishermen from fishing because they are perceived to be hurting the resource or the habitat.

 The inability of the DEP to adjust its requirement regarding the leveling of this habitat is likely to have ramifications beyond this one issue.  When the state’s DMF and other managing agencies come knocking on the lobster industry door wanting more rules to protect lobsters, increase egg production or just improve habitat, why should fishermen be willing to do more?  Why should they when some other state agency, other then the DMF can issue permits for projects that undo what resource managers and the industry have been trying to accomplish?  This pipeline project is, as we all know, just one of several projects past, present and future where this type of mismatch has occurred or may occur in the future.  We can site dredging projects, sand mining and windmills just for starters.

 Any state agency that deals with the protection of our environment and here it’s our marine environment, needs to be more flexible and receptive to using some common sense when it involves the ever changing world in the sea.  They could start by listening and hearing what their sister agency and the state’s lobster industry is saying.

 We are appalled by the lack of sensitivity demonstrated by the Massachusetts DEP towards this states’ lobster resource and its fishermen by compelling this pipeline project to move forward with the unnecessary damaging of the lobsters and their new found habitat.

 Does the state have a Department of Common Sense?

  Bill Adler
Executive Director