Emotions ran high at the Oak Bluffs selectmen’s meeting on Tuesday when shellfishermen appeared to complain about a wide range of issues, including recent discussions about possibly merging the town shellfish department with Tisbury, the elimination of the assistant shellfish warden and the slow progress on the dredging of Sengekontacket Pond.

Shellfishermen said their industry is floundering and selectmen are not doing enough about it.

“The shellfishermen are the lowest on the totem pole in this town,” said longtime shellfisherman Bill Alwardt. “We get no money and we get no support. And our industry is in big trouble.”

A discussion began recently in Tisbury about the possibility of creating a two-town shellfish department headed by Oak Bluffs shellfish constable Dave Grunden. But this week members of the Oak Bluffs shellfish committee questioned why such a plan was being discussed when the department was still feeling the effects of losing assistant shellfish constable Danielle Ewart last year.

Ms. Ewart left her position to become the new shellfish constable in Tisbury last year following the unexpected death of constable Derek Cimeno. As part of a cost-cutting plan to stem a large town deficit, Oak Bluffs will not hire a new assistant constable. An override article at the annual town meeting to restore the position was defeated by voters at the annual election.

Committee members said this week they had not been included in the discussion about creating a joint shellfish department, and they urged selectmen to find a way to bring back the assistant shellfish constable first.

“This man [Mr. Grunden] cannot control the ponds by himself in the summer; we need a second person down there to check the limits and to make sure they are doing the right thing,” said shellfish committee chairman Earl V. Peters. “You can’t tell me in this town we can’t find the money to get a second person with all the money being blown everywhere else.”

Mr. Peters said selectmen should consider the recent town election a wake-up call, and begin to prioritize funding for town departments.

“This town has to make some changes. The cuts are one thing, but you know the raises [for town employees] are still going up . . . people are fed up right now. The shellfish are one of the most valuable things we have. We need to have another person helping Mr. Grunden, and here we are talking about sharing him with another town,” Mr. Peters said.

“[Mr. Grunden] already has enough to do in this town; he is very busy here,” agreed Mr. Alwardt. “I don’t see how this will benefit us . . . if anything it will only cost us more money.”

Some expressed consternation that Mr. Grunden had been recently hired as a part-time consultant in Tisbury. “None of us knew David was going to help out Danielle, except when we read it in the paper,” said Michelle Jones, representing the Martha’s Vineyard and Dukes County Fishermen’s Association. “That is one of the things that have caused people to come undone,” she said, adding:

“I think the board should think very soberly about what their priorities are, and the economic value of those ponds for both our fishermen and the people who come to visit.”

Mr. Grunden defended his part-time work in Tisbury, saying he works between 10 to 15 hours a week on his own time.

“My working to help my former deputy, that is a separate consulting contract I have with Tisbury. It’s not the town of Oak Bluffs, I do that work on my own time,” Mr. Grunden said. “Since Danielle left, I have been on seven days a week trying to keep up with things. And if someone wants to volunteer they should call [the shellfish department] and I will get back to you.”

Mr. Grunden then painted a picture of a shellfish department already hurt by deep town budget cuts, and suggested that some services may need to be eliminated.

“Having suffered a 40 per cent cut in staff hours for the next fiscal year, there are things that will have to be deleted. Right now we are trying to save as much as we can. We have to look at the most labor intensive things to keep everything else going. And one of the most labor intensive things is the steamer clams in the upweller, which I hate to cut out, but I am not seeing many options.”

The discussion touched on reports among fishermen that combining the two departments would lead to Lagoon Pond being opened up equally to fishermen in both towns. Selectman and outgoing board chairman Gregory Coogan flatly dismissed the rumors.

“You are way ahead of this. None of this has been talked about at this level. There are rumors you have heard, and there has been no discussion about it, no closed doors,” Mr. Coogan said, adding: “There are a lot of rumors going around that we are trying to steal their fish and they are going to steal our fish, and none of that stuff has been decided.”

Mr. Coogan said town administrator Michael Dutton, who was absent on Wednesday, did ask Mr. Grunden to look into the possibility of merging the two shellfish departments as part of an ongoing cost-cutting plan.

He refuted the notion that selectmen do not consider shellfishing a priority, but he said the current economic crisis has forced town officials to consider a wide range of changes, including merging departments with other towns.

“Your frustration is not something we don’t feel. We know the department has been cut; we know a lot of departments have been cut. That is what we have to face after this town meeting . . . everyone took a broad stroke and limited all of our departments across the board, not just shellfish,” Mr. Cogan said. “If somehow we can find a way to benefit by working with other towns, then we have to look at that.”

There were also complaints about the lack of progress on a dredging project in Sengekontacket Pond. Voters at town meeting last April approved spending $500,000 to dredge a channel between the Big and Little Bridges.

But the project has seen a series of delays, one caused by the discovery of an artifact on the Edgartown side of the pond that may be part of an old Wampanoag fishing weir. As a result, the town must conduct an archeological survey. Mr. Grunden said the town is close to securing the remaining permits required to complete the project, but he said it cannot go out to bid until the survey is done.

There was little consolation around the room.

“This is one of the biggest projects going on right now in terms of the shellfishing industry for Oak Bluffs. It’s a big asset to Edgartown and they did their share a long time ago,” said former selectman Bert Combra. “It disturbs me to see only one person have any knowledge of what is going on. I think this is something the selectmen should be well up on.”

Mr. Coogan responded: “I know it may appear this is something we are dragging our feet on, but that’s not the case at all. Edgartown, by doing their dredging, has caused us problems, because in doing so they uncovered artifacts that have slowed us down.”

He concluded: “These are problems we are all creating . . . we nitrogen load, we ruin the ponds, and you’re putting all the heat on us . . . . Come on. You know as well as I do that everything on this Island is going to ultimately pollute the ponds, in particular the Lagoon and Sengekontacket. It’s a huge issue, and it’s just a little department . . . let’s be fair here.”