Management & Regulation

WASHINGTON — July 19, 2012 — Today, NOAA officials briefed lawmakers on Capitol Hill and released the official report on the first year of the groundfish catch share program.

Read the report here.

 

 

 

NEW BEDFORD — July 19, 2012 — Scallop fishermen are pleading with government scientists to change course and abandon the models used to determine the yellowtail flounder stock on Georges Bank. The Fisheries Survival Fund, a scallop industry advocacy group, outlined its concerns in a letter to Dr. Bill Karp, director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center in Woods Hole on Friday.

The letter is fair,” said Karp. “But it’s not reasonable to expect these issues to be resolved overnight.”

The important point, he said, is that Georges yellowtail is in poor shape.

“Every signal that we have indicates it is in a declining condition. The argument is how bad is that condition, not whether it’s good or bad.”
Three U.S. surveys and the Canadian survey all bear this out, he said.

The leter asks NOAA to recognize that the current assessment is “not viable for use as a basis for catch advice,” which Karp said was a ”strong statement.” A conservative approach is necessary to maximize the possibility for the stock to recover, he maintained.

“It’s not just the numbers coming out of the assessment. It’s the trends we see in the data,” he said.

Since Georges Bank encompasses both U.S. and Canadian waters, the yellowtail stock there is managed jointly by both countries. “We aren’t free, independently, to change that,” he said.

Karp said that some tough decisions will have to be made by fishery managers in the fall in order to set 2013 quotas.

 

Read the full story in the New Bedford Standard Times

Read more about the letter on Saving Seafood 

 

 

BOSTON—July 19, 2012 — A scallop industry group is calling on fishing regulators to overhaul their method for estimating the troubled yellowtail flounder's population, saying it's arbitrary and indefensible.

The Fisheries Survival Fund made the request in a July 13 letter to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northeast fisheries science chief, William Karp.

Yellowtail in Georges Bank is managed jointly by the U.S. and Canada. The flagging health of the yellowtail population sparked a massive cut in catch this year — 50 percent overall and 80 percent for fishermen who chase other bottom-dwelling groundfish, such as cod.

Similarly onerous cuts are expected next year, and fishermen worry that will ruin the local groundfishing industry and damage the prosperous scallop fleet.

Scallopers accidentally snare yellowtail in their dredges, so they get a portion of the annual yellowtail allotment. They're affected by the ever-tightening catch restrictions, since they can't exceed their yellowtail limit without serious penalty.

The Fisheries Survival Fund is an influential voice for scallop boat operators and owners, who are primarily based in New Bedford, New Jersey and Virginia. In their letter, the scallopers argue a computer model used in yellowtail population estimates has proven useless by consistently producing inaccurate projections. But it said NOAA has just kept tinkering with the flawed model.

"(The agency) needs to redirect its limited resources away from the computer models and towards field research," they wrote.

"If there are to be cuts in the fishery, so be it, but it must be done in an open and justified manner," the letter said.

In its closing paragraph, the fund wrote, "We cannot and will not sit back passively and accept catch advice that is based upon an indefensible and ultimately arbitrary assessment."

In a statement, Karp said the yellowtail's poor condition over the past decade has frustrated attempts to make confident projections about the species.

He said the uncertainty about the yellowtail has been widely and publicly discussed. But he said the yellowtail assessment is a joint effort, and the U.S. wouldn't try to unilaterally change it.

"Some admittedly tough decisions will have to be made by U.S. and Canadian fishery managers in the fall in order to set 2013 quotas," he said.

 

Read the full story by the Associated Press in the Boston Globe

 

 

Dr. William Karp, science and research director of NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center, issued the following statement in response to the July 13 Fisheries Survival Fund letter sent to him regarding the Georges Bank yellowtail flounder assessment. The assessment was conducted a few weeks ago by the US-Canada Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee: "The poor condition of the stock over the past decade indeed confounds attempts to quantify current condition or make projections with confidence, although trends in some characteristics are strong and consistent.  This uncertainty was widely discussed during the bilateral assessment meeting and will be reflected in the summary and final reports, which the US would not unilaterally revise. How this information will  translate into management advice remains to be seen, but some admittedly tough decisions will have to be made by U.S. and Canadian fishery managers in the Fall in order to set 2013 quotas."

July 18, 2012 — NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service has apologized to the squid fleet for failing to effectively announce the July 9 closing of directed squid fishing, carried out in the waters off Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New York — a shutdown that fishermen say needlessly cost them time and money.

Based on projections that 90 percent of the Trimester II quota of 5,366 metric tons was taken, the NMFS’ Northeast Regional Office based in Gloucester’s Blackburn Industrial Park issued the closing order on the afternoon of July 6. But instead of notifying the fleet by email or the electronic vessel monitoring system (VMS) that most boats use to give NMFS the required 72 hours notice of a planned trip, the Gloucester office mailed and faxed the announced closing on July 6 to holders of squid permits. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did not email the announcement until after 8 a.m. July 10 — more than eight hours after the fishery closed.

The inadequate and belated communication of the closing meant wasted time and resources and in some cases lost fishing opportunities for some boats, such as Mark Phillips’ 73-foot Illusion. Phillips said in a telephone interview that he ended a trip after four days of successful fishing about 15 hours from Point Judith, R.I. and 14 hours from Cape May, N.J. and, unaware of the closing, was steaming in to reload with ice and gas for another trip.

Had he known of the closure, Phillips said, he would have remained at sea for a fifth day and maximized his catch. He lives in Greenport, N.Y., but fishes mostly out of New Bedford.

Phillips is a member of Northeast Sector XIII, one of the 13 fishing cooperatives organized by Gloucester’s Northeast Seafood Coalition to participate in the the commodification of the groundfishing industry by NOAA, a system that went into effect in May 2010. Many fishermen, like Phillips, hold permits to fish for other species in addition to groundfish.

“We were all expecting the closure, we just didn’t know when,” Phillips said. “We made business decisions; I would have made a full five-day trip instead of a four-day trip.” He estimated the lost day’s fishing cost him about $10,000 in catch based on the current price of about $1 to $1.10 per pound at the dock for the longfin squid. “It’s the best season we’ve had in a long time,” he added.

“In this day and age of universal, instantaneous communications, it is flat out unacceptable that (NMFS) failed to alert our fishing community about this closure and cause many of them to lose tends of thousands of dollars on a wasted journey,” U.S. Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirstin Gillibrand and Congressman Tim Bishop, all of New York, said in a statement Tuesday.

Also Tuesday, Daniel S. Morris, NMFS’ acting regional administrator in Gloucester, issued a statement of his own.

 

Read the full story in the Gloucester Times 

Read Captain Phillips' letter to Daniel S. Morris, NMFS’ acting regional administrator

 

 

WASHINGTON – July 18, 2012 – Last Friday, the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), an industry group that includes the majority of full-time, limited-access scallop permit holders, wrote to Dr. Bill Karp, the newly appointed Director of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, to address serious concerns regarding NOAA’s most recent assessment of the Georges Bank yellowtail flounder stock.

The following information regarding the letter has been provided to Saving Seafood by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

In their letter, referring to the recent Transboundary Resource Assessment Committee (TRAC) meeting that discussed the yellowtail stock, FSF stated, “Despite all of the hard work of the [Georges Bank] yellowtail stock assessment team, those of us at the meeting were presented with a seriously flawed assessment.”

The scallop industry is concerned about yellowtail flounder because yellowtail can inhabit the sea bottom in the same areas as scallops. If scallopers’ yellowtail flounder allocations are reduced to low levels, it will act as a choke species, preventing fisherman from harvesting scallops.

The letter, which was signed by Fisheries Survival Fund legal counsel Drew Minkiewicz and David Frulla, stated that, “…all too often [the center that Mr. Karp now leads] takes the approach of trying to solve an assessment problem by reworking the existing data and using numerous statistical tools.”

After noting that NOAA’s scientists have not been able to resolve the problems in the model without contradicting NOAA’s own prior public statements on the subject, FSF observed, “If the model is not capable of accounting for the unknown aliases, the answer is not to put one’s head down and go forth into that statistical night; rather, it is to accept the limitations of the model and acknowledge the obvious: we are currently in a place that is beyond the capability of the current model, making the model no longer useful for catch advice.”

FSF told NOAA that NOAA Fisheries, formally known as the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), “…needs to redirect its limited resources away from the computer models and towards field research.” They continued, “What we are asking for, and believe the fishing industry and nation deserve, is a defensible process for setting catch quotas and a partner in moving forward to improve our understanding of this critical stock. “

Last May, a new assessment of the Georges Bank yellowtail flounder stock found that the previous assessment was over-optimistic in its estimates, and that the catch limits produced from that assessment resulted in overfishing of this stock. As a result, the total Georges Bank yellowtail harvest was reduced to 540 metric tons for 2012; half of the 2011 catch level.

FSF further asks that NOAA recognize that the current yellowtail assessment is not viable for use as a basis for catch advice. In addition, FSF encourages the use of alternate catch advice methods to set allocations for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, and implores NOAA to embark upon an expanded biological research program for yellowtail flounder to help try to identify the causes of the model’s flaws, so they can be resolved in a principled way.

FSF did not request any repeal of pre-existing yellowtail catch quota reductions , and is not pressing for a new benchmark assessment at this time. Rather, FSF asks for more reliable science, a more thorough biological research process, and a better assessment model for the basis of yellowtail management. All these steps need to be taken before NOAA embarks on a comprehensive benchmark assessment, or else the next assessment won’t be any better than the last. FSF wrote, “If there are to be cuts in the fishery, so be it, but it must be done in an open and justified manner."

Failure of the 2005 “split series” correction

In 2005, the yellowtail assessment began to show a retrospective pattern, which is an indicator of inaccuracy within a model. To correct for this, the 2009 assessment team split the time series of yellowtail data, meaning that they applied different catchability rates to data collected after 1995, masking from view any of the unknown and potential causes of the retrospective pattern. However, the disappearance of this retrospective pattern was only temporary. It recently re-emerged, indicating that there are deeper problems within the model.

Upon the retrospective pattern’s return this year, the assessment committee tested several ways to correct their model. The team ran three different trials, adjusting the natural mortality rate, catch rate, and both values, attempting to fit the data to the model, and eliminate the retrospective pattern. But in order to do so, they had to adjust these values by as much as four to five times their original figures. The committee considered these values too great to include them as the possible explanations for the retrospective pattern, leaving the cause still unclear.

Despite the admitted presence of a retrospective pattern in the model, and the unknown cause of that pattern, the assessment continues to be used to provide management and catch advice for the fishery. NOAA Fisheries asserts that their adjustments are adequate to fix the unknown underlying problems, directly in contradiction to their own prior statements. FSF points out that assessments marked with retrospective patterns are not acceptable for use in management decisions, citing NOAA’s Chris Legault in a 2008 Retrospective Working Group meeting: “A strong retrospective pattern is grounds to reject an assessment model as an indication of stock status or the basis for management advice.”

FSF asked, “Does NMFS intend to follow its own advice?”

Not asking for “more fish” but for “defensible, empirical findings”

In summary, NOAA Fisheries is asking the industry to assume responsibility for a 50% reduction in quota, on top of a 50% reduction in quota from the previous year, based on flawed techniques that, even by NOAA’s own statements, should be excluded from consideration.

Despite the abundance of problems within the data, TRAC was reluctant to reject the assessment because no alternative method for giving catch advice was available. FSF requests that, until these problems can be eliminated, that catch advice be based on catch data and surveys, rather than the flawed assessment. To act otherwise would invest the future of both the scallop and groundfish fisheries in unreliable and problematic data. That is not in the best interests of either industry, nor of federal management organizations.

FSF asserts that the focus of research must shift from statistical to biological. As it stands, many concerning trends in the yellowtail population still lack a tangible, biological explanation. Although these issues remain unresolved, the agency continues to move forward with a current assessment model that will strike a catastrophic blow to both the yellowtail and scallop fisheries alike.

According to FSF, the scallop industry is committed to maintaining a sustainable stock size of Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, and has demonstrated that pledge through their continued partnership with The University of Massachusetts School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) bycatch avoidance system. Working together with SMAST, and in cooperation with NOAA Fisheries and the New England Fisheries Management Council via their Scallop Research Set-Aside Program, great opportunity exists to develop better research programs and more sustainable harvesting practices without relying on arbitrary and mutually detrimental data.

Concluding their letter, FSF offers further and final clarification that their motivation to submit written comments to NOAA is not simply to be permitted to catch more fish from the sea, but, instead, to establish an ongoing effort to replace currently flawed data and models with defensible, empirical findings.

They request that NOAA Fisheries acknowledge that the current Georges Bank yellowtail flounder assessment is not suitable for providing catch advice; provide the public with an objective set of criteria to judge the viability of an assessment; as an interim measure, that NOAA Fisheries and the New England Fisheries Management Council provide catch advice using alternative catch advice strategies that rely on survey and catch indices; and that NOAA Fisheries works with FSF and other interested parties in developing and executing a research program for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder with the goal of creating a credible stock assessment.

 

Read the original FSF letter here 

 

 

July 17, 2012 — A top federal fisheries official on Tuesday apologized to regional fishermen for the abrupt closure last week of the longfin-squid grounds, a move that some Long Islanders said cost them tens of thousands of dollars.

Managers usually provide several days notice of closures, which take place when the allotted quota of a targeted species is reached based on vessel landings reports, but in the case of the squid fishery, most fishermen received notice just hours before the closure.

Daniel S. Morris, acting regional director for the northeast at the National Marine Fisheries Service, in a publicly released letter acknowledged that two primary methods for alerting fishermen of the closure "did not work."

Fishermen such as Mark Phillips of Greenport said they did not receive word until the afternoon of July 9, just hours before the closure, while he had already steamed to the fishing grounds and had loaded his vessel with ice and supplies. He had to return by midnight.

Three Democratic New York lawmakers, Sen. Charles Schumer, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and Rep. Tim Bishop of Southampton, called the agency to task, and demanded that it explore more modern alternatives to communicate with fishermen, and a better system of advance notice.

 

Read the full story on Newsday

 

 

July 17, 2012 — BOSTON (AP) Federal regulators are eliminating restrictions that aim to stop scallop fishermen from snaring sea turtles, saying they're unneeded because rule changes and gear modifications are protecting the reptiles.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it's lifting restrictions the fleet now faces in the mid-Atlantic during May through November, when it's shut out of certain areas because of the risk of running into the migrating turtles. The agency says it will instead monitor fishing and evaluate gear changes, which appear more effective at protecting turtles.

The booming scallop industry has, for instance, developed a dredge that knocks turtles out of its way before the endangered animals get trapped. Also, trawl nets used by scallopers have been modified so there's an escape vent turtles can slip through.

The Fisheries Survival Fund, an industry group, said scallopers worked for nearly a decade to develop the dredge with researcher Ron Smolowitz of the Coonamessett Farm Foundation in Falmouth. It said it appreciates that NOAA recognizes what the group has done to protect turtles.

The New England Fishery Management Council still must pass new regulations to officially lift the current restrictions on the scallop fleet in the mid-Atlantic. Federal officials are aiming to have the changes in place by March 2013, the start of the next fishing year for scallopers.

 

Read the full story from the Associated Press in the Boston Globe

 

 

GLOUCESTER, Mass. – July 16, 2012 — Last week, United States Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Tim Bishop blasted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for failing to properly notify the Long Island, New York fishing industry that a closure of the squid fishery was imminent, costing local fishermen thousands of dollars in haul preparation costs that cannot be recovered. A week ago Friday, NOAA sent out notification to a limited universe of fishing interests, via fax, notifying them that the 90 percent of the Longfin Squid fishery had been harvested and would be closed the following Monday. Word of the impending closure did not reach many in the industry until days later, after many boats were at sea, having purchased fuel, ice, and provisions for up to five days.

Read the press release from United States Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Congressman Tim Bishop

Today, NOAA Fisheries' Northeast Regional Office mailed a letter of apology to affected fishermen.  The apology will be posted to their website tomorrow.

The text of the apology follows:

The longfin squid fishery was closed on July 10 as our catch projections showed that 90% of the Trimester II quota would be caught. We announced the closure on the afternoon of July 6, but two of our primary means for providing the information to industry did not work. I have heard from fishermen that the poor communication caused confusion, inconvenience, and, in some cases, unnecessary expenses. I apologize for the poor communication and am committed to improving.

Typically, when we have time-sensitive news to announce, we place paper copies of the permit holder letter in the mail, air messages over National Weather Service Radio and Coast Guard Broadcast, and email constituents who have opted to receive emails from us at nero.noaa.gov. We do not typically send VMS messages for longfin squid closures because VMS is not required for longfin squid permit holders.

These notification methods are obviously not foolproof, and our communication leading up to the July 10 closure have prompted us to troubleshoot and rethink how we pass time-sensitive information to the fleet. We seek your help. We will investigate the costs and utility of using VMS to notify vessels of longfin squid closures.

We'd also like to hear any ideas you may have for improving our fleet notifications about other time-sensitive actions. Contact the Sustainable Fisheries Division at 978-281-9315 if you have suggestions.

Sincerely,

Daniel S. Morris
Acting Regional Administrator 

 

View the original letter here

 

 

July 14, 2012 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has approved the transfer of approximately 332,016 pounds of Georges Bank yellowtail flounder quota from the scallop fleet to New England groundfishermen in an action supported by both groups. The transfer is intended to provide some desperately needed relief to the groundfish fleet. Regulators had reduced its yellowtail quota by 80 percent this year while the scallop fleet took only 31 percent of its assigned yellowtail quota last year.

The Fisheries Survival Fund, a scallop industry group, expressed its appreciation for the move in a letter, dated July 12, to Samuel Rauch, deputy assistant administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. However, the letter also emphasized the government agency's need to develop better tools for tracking yellowtail.

"Scallop fishermen currently pay observers to track (yellowtail) bycatch during fishing operations," the letter said, "and yet NOAA Fisheries takes five to six months before the observer data is integrated into the catch estimates."

 

Read the full story in the New Bedford Standard Times