WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) Sept. 20, 2012 - To avoid reaching the yellowtail limit prematurely, the Fisheries Survival Fund, an industry group that includes the majority of full-time, limited-access scallop permit holders, urged scallopers to avoid yellowtail by-catch by utilizing SMAST’s by-catch avoidance program. 

The program, a voluntary initiative between SMAST and the industry, tracks the amount of yellowtail by-catch reported in the scallop closed areas: Closed Area 1, Closed Area 2, and Nantucket Lightship. SMAST collects by-catch data reported by fishermen, and releases the information on sections of the closed areas where yellowtail by-catch is high, allowing fishermen to avoid these locations. Through cooperation with SMAST on the by-catch avoidance program, the scallop fleet is able to responsibly harvest all of its available scallop catch, while also helping to conserve the yellowtail flounder population.

Cate O’Keefe, a research technician and graduate student at SMAST, summarized the situation: "By-catch has remained consistently higher in the central portion of Closed Area II and low in the eastern portion. Scallop catch rates in Closed Area 2, as reported through the by-catch avoidance system, have not varied greatly throughout the area, indicating that areas with low by-catch have similar scallop catch rates as areas with high by-catch rates."

To view SMAST’s yellowtail advisory, which contains a graphical summary of the closed areas and areas of high yellowtail by-catch, click here