Deirdre Boelke, a scallop plan coordinator with the New England Fishery Management Council, said the difficulties facing the scallop fleet with the yellowtail by-catch issue are well known by regulators.

While fishermen have until January to take advantage of the one trip that regulators grant each vessel inside a closed area, it is fear of an early closure that prompts this particular gold rush. Along with their target species, fishermen inevitably bring up the bottom-dwelling yellowtail flounder in their scallop dredges. Amid concerns over the health of that stock, fishery regulators have decreed that once the fleet harvests 313,000 pounds of yellowtail by-catch, these areas will close again.

"That's why a decision was made to compensate boats that may not been able to get their 18,000 pounds if the areas close," she said.
According to the formulas that regulate commercial fishing, any boat shut out of Area 1 will receive an additional 4.2 days of fishing in open scallop areas. Area 2 boats will receive an additional 5.7 days, she said.

To help the fleet stay out of areas with high concentrations of yellowtail, researchers from the School of Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth are partnering with fishermen to conduct a by-catch avoidance program.

"It's great that we have 201 boats signed up to participate," SMAST's Cate O'Keefe said. "The program uses data collected by fishermen on the location and amount of yellowtail catch. Then we send a summary of the information back to the fleet each day to provide a real-time update of by-catch hot spots." When the fishermen see concentrations of yellowtail they can move to another spot, she said.

SMAST introduced the plan last year when the fleet was able to access the Nantucket Lightship closed area. It was highly successful. "We had 122 boats participate, and the fleet harvested their full allocation of scallops while only catching about 32 percent of the yellowtail flounder they were allowed," O'Keefe said.

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