Brewster To Retain Lifetime Shellfish Permits For Seniors

BREWSTER – Good news for Brewster grandfathers: They’ve been grandfathered in.

Seventeen years ago the town created a lifetime shellfish permit for residents age 70 or over that was available for just $5. But inflation has even hit the shellfish business, and with the price of stocking oysters and quahogs off Brewster’s shoreline rising, the town revised its fee structure last year.

In December the natural resources department looked at kayak storage, moorings and shellfish costs and fees. On Dec. 19, the select board voted to eliminate the lifetime permits and replace it with an annual $15 permit fee for seniors. The residential/family fee was lifted from $25 to $40 and nonresidents pay $140 a year to harvest mollusks (up from $125).

There was a lot of negative feedback from seniors, and in January the select board decided to hold off on imposing the increase and issue new zero-cost permits, lifetime permits to seniors through the council on aging instead. Any new 65 and older folks purchasing a shellfish permit would pay a $15 annual fee.

In the meantime Brewster compiled previously lacking data and on Monday night took up the issue again at the select board meeting.

Natural Resources Director Chris Miller told the board that Brewster has issued 264 lifetime permits and sold 53 new $15 senior permits this past year. In total Brewster has sold 958 shellfish permits.

Miller said the first two Oyster Sundays this fall drew 340 and 270 shellfishers, with about one third holding senior permits. In addition to the senior permits, both lifetime and annual, the town has sold 628 residential, 14 nonresidential and eight Massachusetts senior veterans’ permits.

The cost of shellfish seed is rising and Miller said the stocking program is operating at a deficit.

“Last year if you look at revenues we would expect about $34,600,” Miller said. “In FY24 there was an increase in the expense line for oysters and quahogs of $14,000 and about $1,000 for gear. If you look at the number of [lifetime] permits sold and assume a $15 annual fee, that equals about $4,000 a year. Last year we took in $29,000 in shellfish fees. So we’re about $4,000 short to cover the cost of running the program.”

If those 264 lifetime permit holders paid $15 a year that would raise $3,960. The $15 fee would make the program self-sufficient without funding from the general fund, providing the amount of seed purchased was adjusted.

Several residents noted that the town had sold a lifetime permit and that should last a lifetime. Not to do so was breaking a promise and a breach of contract. The select board agreed that the lifetime permit should be for life and voted to continue the current rules by a 4-0 margin. Mary Chaffee was absent.

Newly issued senior permits will cost $15 a year and over time the number of lifetime permits will decline. Seniors will have to pick up a new permit each year as their total harvest is limited and checked off on the back of the permit.

The board did have to reckon with another issue: What exactly is entailed in a senior permit? They’ve generally been treated as a family permit, but what constitutes a family? Does the senior permit holder need to be present if the grandkids are out digging up littlenecks? If there are 15 grandchildren can they each show up and harvest a bucket of quahogs? What about their families? The board put off that discussion and will take it up at a later meeting.