Management & Regulation

To prevent over-harvest of Georges Bank (GB) yellowtail flounder in the U.S./Canada Management Area, NE multi-species days-at-sea (DAS) vessels, as of 0001 hours local November 20, 2009, are prohibited from using, fishing with, or deploying trawl net gear, except for a haddock separator trawl or a Ruhle trawl, in the area south of 41°40’ N. latitude in the Western U.S./Canada Area (Area 4).

Click here for more information from NOAA.

Without rules, species would be overfished, but we don’t always have the data to justify the rules. Contradictions in the red crab fishery perfectly illustrate the tug-of-war that happens in fishery regulation.

Are red crab sustainable or not? Are fishermen getting a raw deal based on a bad market year, or are lower limits necessary to protect the species?

No one seems to know, and the most troubling thing is how familiar this sounds to anyone who follows New England fisheries.

Even when the science is good, interest groups debate its validity to no end. With red crab, the science is far too limited.

Perhaps, as with scallop research conducted by UMass Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology, scientific evaluation of the crab population will mean good news for fishermen as well as for conservation.

Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.

The draft includes an Environmental Assessment, a Regulatory Impact Review and an Initial Regulatory Flexibility Analysis

It was prepared by the New England Fishery Management Council in consultation with the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council National Marine Fisheries Service

The Draft Framework 44 Adjustment sets ACLs for 2010-2012 and considers additional effort control measures.  Reference copies will be available at the Council meeting on Wednesday, November 18 in Newport, RI.

See the Draft Framework Adjustment here.

Matt Ruby and Phil Conklin are "in the commercial fishing industry in fishing communities surrounding Myrtle Beach."

While federal law requires fishery managers to end overfishing, and most fishermen understand that regulations are essential to the long-term prosperity of the fishery, traditional regulations – like season closures – will likely put many fishermen out of business.

Fishermen need to take control of their fishery by supporting a move that the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council recently made to explore catch share management for snapper and grouper species.

Read the complete story at The Sun News.

Coming across country, two Alaskans describing their deep, different and varied experiences in the nation’s newest, biggest volume and value fishery also underscored how different their catch share system histories are from the one the New England groundfishermen have to look forward to.

Amendment 16, now published for comment, would, if approved as written, institute split system for the groundfishery — with one segment of the industry working off shares that are pooled in harvesting cooperatives while the independents continue to work in a continuation of the preexisting effort control approach — only with ever less effort allowed.

Both representatives who visited here Wednesday (Nov. 11) evening — with The Gloucester House a middle stop on a speaking and question-answering tour that started Tuesday in New Bedford and ended yesterday in Portland — readily agreed that Alaska has nothing like the mixed stock New England groundfishery, which has been operating in the Western Atlantic for half a millennium.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

It’s time federal lawmakers launched a push to at least demand NMFS be accountable for its data, and that, if this data is being used to regulate American businesses, it needs to be accurate.

That means sending NMFS a very basic message of its own: If you admit the data’s wrong, you can’t use it until you fix it.

It’s good to know the National Marine Fisheries Service has agreed to extend the deadline for fishermen to appeal the flawed data the beleaguered federal agency has posted for catch histories being used as a base for their allowable catch under the planned new regulatory format.

That at least shows a willingness by NMFS to try to correct what its officials concede is wrong information — an important factor considering the data’s being used to determine each fisherman’s and cooperative "sector’s" catch share for the coming year.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Hoff Stauffer is managing director of the Wingaersheek Research Group, based in Gloucester. He was the first Director of Economic Analysis at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1970s, and served as a senior member of various consulting and research firms where he focused on public policy and corporate strategy related to energy and environmental issues.

In Alaska, catch share systems were designed collaboratively from the bottom up over multiple years.

Here, the National Marine Fisheries Service wants to impose a catch share system without careful design in less than a year.

So how can we get ourselves out of this mess?

The answers are relatively simple and straightforward:

1. Set annual catch limits on a pace to sustainable levels that minimize the disruption to fishermen families and communities;

2. Delay implementation of a catch share system until: A.) The shares can be allocated based on sound catch histories; B.) the rules governing transfer of shares can carefully and collaboratively be developed; C.) The capabilities to monitor and enforce can be demonstrated.

3. Also, work out the nasty details not addressed herein on bycatch, habitat protection, carry-forwards, and the like. The fish stocks are already improving. There is no need to set draconian total catch limits or to rush to implement a poorly designed catch share system.

NMFS should pause, take a deep breath, and proceed to do this carefully and fairly, in collaboration with the industry.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Peter Kaizer is captain of F/V Althea K out of Nantucket, and a member of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association.

One thing that none of us – fishermen or charter clients – can adapt to is the overfishing and depletion of the herring stock. Atlantic herring has been the main forage fish for nearly all species, especially the tuna and striped bass I rely on. All is not well with herring populations, and the time to take precautionary action is long overdue. Independent regional fishery scientists, who are legally charged with advising the government, have spoken in one voice that we need to back off of the herring stock immediately.

At its meeting, the council must adopt the quota reductions as proposed by the scientists in order to ensure healthy and sustainable herring populations. The council must also prioritize completion of a comprehensive catch-monitoring program for the herring fishery, so we can get rid of this uncertainty.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

The sea air isn’t all that’s salty when fishermen in this Cape Cod town talk about the hated spiny dogfish.

Fishermen consider the small shark, renowned for its stunning appetite, the vermin of the ocean. They say the once-threatened dogfish has rebounded under federal protections to an insatiable mass that’s devouring more valuable and scarce fish that regulators are trying to restore, such as cod, while it destroys nets, steals bait and eats catch right off their hooks.

"It’s a [expletive] plague of locusts is what it is," hook fisherman Peter Taylor said. "I don’t care if I make a penny on dogfish, we just need to kill them."

Fishermen want to catch more of the ornery, schooling predator to dent its population and make more money off it, but rules forbid that.

Federal regulators say though fishermen see dogfish everywhere, "they’re not seeing the whole picture," said Maggie Mooney-Seus, a National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman.

Read the complete story at North Jersey.

Each week, WBSM in New Bedford, MA hosts the Saving Seafood Hour on "Morning Magazine with Phil Paleologos."

This week, Saving Seafood Executive Director Bob Vanasse speaks with Phil about the industry’s Washington, DC-based public relations effort.  Special guest Amanda Odlin, organizer of the recent fishermen’s rally in Gloucester, discusses the protester’s goals.

[click here to listen now]