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Over 200 Scallop Vessels Join UMass SMAST Program to Avoid Bycatch |
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Over 200 scallop vessels have signed up to participate in this year’s University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) Yellowtail Flounder Bycatch Avoidance Program. Participants in the program range from North Carolina to Massachusetts and include owner-operated vessels as well as vessels from larger fleets. The program is endorsed by the Fisheries Survival Fund, which represents the vast majority of full-time Atlantic scallop fishermen from Maine to Virginia.
The SMAST Yellowtail Flounder Bycatch Avoidance Program is ready to start at the opening of Closed Areas I and II on August 1st at 12:01am. The scallop management actions, Amendment 15 and Framework 22, were published in the Federal Register on July 21st authorizing vessels to harvest their allocations from the Georges Bank closed areas. All vessels were allocated two 18,000 lb. trips to the areas with 75% of the effort in Closed Area I and 25% of the effort in Closed Area II. The fleet must operate under a Total Allowable Catch of yellowtail flounder set at 201 mt. (~306,000 lb.). Reaching this catch limit on yellowtail flounder will force a closure of both areas to all scallop fishing.
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MELISSA WOOD, NATIONAL FISHERMEN: Meting out the meager
May 22, 2012 - Listening to the New England Council's Groundfish Advisory Panel talk about how that industry is going to pay for monitoring costs is kind of like trying to figure out how to pay your bills when you've just lost your job. Though monitoring is important keeping costs down is critical. As Panel Member Gary Libby pointed out, "If we had 100 percent monitoring we probably wouldn't have an industry."
