“This plan is the result of years of hard work with hundreds of agencies, local officials, community leaders and fishermen to restore the quality of Cape Cod’s coastal waters and to bring back shellfish beds that have been shut down or are at risk of closure,” said Delahunt at today’s hearing. “This plan targets seventy five of the highest priority coastal restoration projects on Cape Cod designed to boost our coastal economy and help sustain hundreds of jobs in the shellfishing industry.”
Currently, over thirty-six percent of the Cape’s 28,000 acres of salt marsh have been lost or severely degraded over the past fifty years. The problem stems largely from reductions in the tidal flushing of salt marshes due to poor drainage and man-made obstructions, such as road culverts and berms that have restricted tidal flow and degraded water quality. The degraded wetlands have impacted shellfish beds and fish spawning habitat. The restoration projects include the replacement and widening of culverts, new and improved coastal drainage systems and the restoration of fish ladders and other fish passages. Improving these areas will allow greater numbers of anadromous fish to gain access to spawning areas and overall improvements to coastal water quality that boost shellfishing in the long run.
“When you take away the tourism and retirement sectors of the Cape’s economy, what you have is a struggling economy driven year round by the building trades, and the fishing, shell-fishing and cranberry industries,” said Delahunt. “It is largely blue collar work that provides median family incomes well below the state and national average. These jobs define the true character of Cape Cod, and they have been the source of income for working families for generations…. unless we take aggressive action now, we could very well see these industries disappear.”
Delahunt testified before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation, Credit, Energy, and Research. NRCS funded projects that exceed $5 million require the Committee’s approval. In his testimony before the panel Delahunt, singled out the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) and their staff on Cape Cod headed up by Don Liptack, and the Association for the Preservation of Cape Cod (APCC) for their tireless work on the initiative. Appearing with Delahunt before the Committee was Don Keeran, Assistant Director of the APCC. The Committee is expected to make a final decision on the plan in the next four to eight weeks.
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