Management & Regulation

The New England Fisheries Management Council voted to recommend to NMFS an increase in the skate possession limit from 1,900 lbs. to 5,000 lbs.. The vote was 16-0 with one abstention.  Chairman John Pappalardo thanked the PDT and SSC for the extra work they took on to speed up this reconsideration.

New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang has written to the New England Fisheries Management Council, meeting in Mystic, Connecticut, to reiterate his grave concern regarding fisheries management. "As a result of the lack of a comprehensive assessment of the socio-economic impacts of the Council's management systems… the Council (NEFMC) continuously makes decisions that threaten our employment, our economy, our working waterfront infrastructure, and our fishermen and their families." said the Mayor.

Regarding the April 28th vote on Skate, the mayor stated "The small token increase to 5,000 pounds (a 75% reduction), while appreciated, will not be sufficient…"  The council voted to increase skate limits from 1,900 lbs. to 5,000 lbs., a 260% increase over the previous recommendation for next year, it represents a cut of 75% from last year's level of 20,000 lbs.

The mayor also asked the council to rebuild Yellowtail founder stocks in 10 years rather than 7, which he says could resolve "the entire issue associated with yellowtail landings".

Read the mayor's letter here [pdf]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some day late this June, 20 people from the East End who aren’t fishermen plan to go down to the sea, catch three porgies apiece, and bring them to Stuart’s Seafood Market in Amagansett.

There, in a large parking lot beside the market’s packing house, they will place those porgies in 20 shipping containers filled with ice, and mark them to be sent to the Fulton Fish Market.

If all goes as planned, the media and other notable community members will be on hand to watch as the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, whose law enforcement branch will also be invited, tickets or arrests the participants.

Read the complete story at East Hampton News.

 

 

 

 

 

Three firms including MRAG Americas, headed by a former high government fisheries official with close ties to NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco, have been chosen to share the $6.5 million contract to provide on-board observer services to the New England fishing industry as it begins a new management regime.

Its president, Andrew Rosenberg, is a high-profile fishery scientist and former deputy director of the National Marine Fisheries Service as well a former professor and dean at University of New Hampshire.
The award was announced last week.

The National Marine Fisheries Service makes the assignments from the observer office in Woods Hole, according to a contract officer.

Several New England fishing industry leaders, and numerous fishermen, have told Saving Seafood they harbor both concern and resentment about Dr. Rosenberg's actions during his tenure at NMFS.  They are investigating the possibility of avoiding MRAG's observer services in favor of companies whose leadership is not perceived as having a history of antagonism toward the fishing industry.

The other two firms sharing the contract to provide observers are East West Technical Services of New Britain, Conn., and A.I.S. Inc. of New Bedford.

The contract selection process took an unusual turn last week when MRAG posted on its Web site that it had already been granted the award before the government formalized the selection at the end of a five-day period for challenges.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

 

 

 

 

 

The following statment by Sally McGee was released by EDF.

Mystic, CT (April 28, 2010) —  “I am pleased to support recommendations today for modifications to the skate and the red crab fisheries which will increase flexibility and likely lead to increased profitability for many New England fishermen.

Consistent with New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) recommendations, the Council has recommended that the National Marine Fisheries Service should increase the skate wing possession limit from 1900 to 5000 pounds.  This will help reduce discards and add a revenue stream for some groundfishermen while maintaining a sustainable catch level.  The SSC has also identified and prioritized skate for research and assessment of age, growth, maturity, discards and bycatch over the next several years so we will continually better our understanding of these important species.

Also, the new red crab analysis by the SSC provided an opportunity to increase the Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) to more accurately reflect the state of the fishery.  Consistent with the best science available, I was glad to join a unanimous vote in favor of increasing the ABC to 1775 metric tons for fishing year 2010.  It is very encouraging that this new analysis, provided by the Council’s scientific advisors, shows us that increasing the ABC for this stock will allow fishermen to catch more crab while maintaining the long term sustainability of this fishery.

The skate and red crab management measures before the Council today are precisely the kind of actions that the NEFMC should take to support New England fishermen and fisheries.”

 

 

 

 

 

Vito Giacalone, policy director, and Richie Canastra, board member and treasurer of the Northeast Seafood Coalition have released the following statement to address questions have arisen from a number of parties as to the nature of the agreement presented at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire New England Fisheries Management Council meeting between ground fishermen and scallopers on the yellowtail flounder allocations.

At the meeting, Mr. Giacalone presented the position of the Northeast Seafood Coalition.

According to Mr. Giacalone and Mr. Canastra, the “understanding” was nothing more than a policy decision, not a "deal" but rather an "understanding", and did not involve financial compensation.

 

Questions have arisen from a number of parties as to the nature of “the deal” presented at the Portsmouth, New Hampshire council meeting between ground fishermen and scallopers on the yellowtail flounder issue.

Accordingly, we are taking this opportunity to present the facts.

The most frequently asked question is this: What were the details of the scallop and groundfish fisheries’ understanding with regard to Framework 21 and yellowtail flounder allocations between the two fisheries?

This question came up at the Joint Groundfish/Scallop Oversight Committee meeting a few weeks ago. It may come up again at this week’s full Council meeting.

The answer is simple.  NO compensation … None.

The groundfishermen’s action was a total leap of faith and a gesture of solidarity. Purely and simply, the political, economic and scientific realities made the decision to support the scallopers a no-brainer.

The “understanding” was nothing more than a policy decision that resulted from some very, very simple facts.

•       The port of New Bedford’s fishing infrastructure and local economy are heavily dependent upon its scallop fishery.

•       Northeast Fisheries Sectors in New Bedford hold more than of 70% of the commercial Annual Catch Limits (ACL) for Georges Bank yellowtail flounder.

•       New Bedford’s political leaders stuck their necks out on this issue and a backlash from New Bedford groundfish interests over measly scraps of yellowtail seemed worth avoiding.

•       The Northeast Seafood Coalition recognized one of the potential benefits of sectors is the ability to internally reconcile policy differences and to take positions that will be beneficial to the greater good — without necessarily having to speak to every individual impacted.  This is possible because there are sufficient fish within the group of sectors to make whole those who disagree and allow those who agree to use their fish to cover a voluntary loss. THIS WAS OUR FALLBACK POSITION IN THE EVENT PARTICIPANTS BECAME UPSET AFTER HEARING WE SUPPORTED THIS. BUT THIS DID NOT HAPPEN SO NOTHING WAS DONE TO REARRANGE FISH ALLOCATIONS INSIDE OUR SECTORS.

•       We spoke with our New Bedford sectors and explained the unique circumstance and also made clear the fact that there is no way to trade the fish or be compensated for the fish. This was not an effort aimed at financial gain, but rather it was an opportunity to show solidarity.  We elected to show the scallop fleet that the ground fishermen recognized the huge potential loss to the scallop fishery relative to the relatively insignificant amount of yellowtail lost if the losses were spread among permit holders.

•       New Bedford groundfish fishermen chose to take our advice and prevent the NEFMC from using groundfish sector yellowtail loss as THE excuse for not shifting the one-year allocation of 80k pounds of yellowtail.

•       And Vito Giacalone stated at the microphone in Portsmouth, NH, the Yellowtail fishery has been destroyed by management and the application of US law, which is causing us to fish at barely 20% of the Allowable Biological Catch (ABC). That is the problem, not the scallop fishery.

•       We spoke with enough key scallop people to let them know we intended to support them. We made clear that this was a gesture of solidarity, and expressed our intent to work together in the future to improve data and science with regards to stocks important to both fisheries. Through improved science and sensible management policies there can be enough allocation to satisfy the scallop by catch without creating MARKETS that pretend to be fixing things.

•       We did not speak with a broad enough range of either scallopers OR ground fishermen to morally or ethically consider any kind of compensation. The action was taken in good faith that someday the favor will be returned in the form of working together.
 
That is it.  Contrary to what folks would like to believe, this was simply a policy position. It kept New Bedford from being divided while their political leadership was fighting for the scallopers, and it sent a message to regulators that forcing fishermen to fight over token scraps at the 11th hour, after real opportunities to improve the ACL — before a showdown scenario — was not a situation we were prepared to tolerate.
 
People endorse policy decisions with impact on the bottom lines of others every day without speaking to every single permit holder. In fact, decisions often are made that are against what the majority of fishermen would like to see. Instead, decisions are often based upon what the influential few prefer. Our  “understanding” was far more inclusive and reflective of the wishes of those who had the highest stake in the yellowtail fishery than many, many decisions made in the past.
 
We place our credibility upon these statements.
 
 
Most sincerely,

Vito Giacalone and Richie Canastra
 

With four days to go before the new skate fishing year begins, NOAA has not yet published the final rule for Skate Amendment 3.  However, the Amendment has been approved by NOAA and the New England Council Staff anticipates a final rule will be published by May 1st.

According to Council Staff, the final rule for Skate Amendment 3 has not yet been published and the information on the NE Regional Office web site refers to existing limits.  The Council has been informed that Amendment 3 was approved by NMFS and the amendment reduces the skate wing possession limit to 1,900 lbs. of wings, based on Total Allowable Landings (TAL) of 11,544 mt.  Recent estimates by the PDT using new data however indicate that the TAL can be increased to 14,277 mt.

Skate fishery information can be found here, which should be updated when the final rule is published.

The Council is evaluating updated information at the April meeting and may recommend changes to the skate wing possession limit by Emergency Action.  An Emergency Action would become effective quickly, possibly at the start of the 2010 fishing year, for up to 360 days.  The value for a revised skate wing possession limit had not yet been chosen.

 

 

 

 

 

Groundfish are fish species that live on or near the body of water they inhabit. The United States Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, recently announced new measures, to be effective May 1st, to end overfishing and continue the rebuilding of groundfish in the waters of the Northeastern United States. The measures include new limits on catches and a major change in how the fishery will be managed.

For the first time, the U.S. will impose a cap on the amount of all groundfish of any species that are permitted to be caught. In addition, there will be measures to mitigate if the catch limits are exceeded. These measures provide some of the strongest safeguards to date for recovering groundfish stocks, the majority of which are overfished. Commercial vessels will no longer be allowed to catch certain groundfish species, including windowplane flounder, ocean pout, wolffish and southern New England winter flounder.

In addition to the new caps, these measures will fundamentally change the way this fishery will be managed. Fishing vessels may now fish with others as a group, or "sector." Sectors, which are voluntary for fishing vessels, are formed each year and given a portion of the total available groundfish catch based on the combined fishing history of their member vessels.

Read the complete story at VOA News.

 

 

 

 

 

New federal regulations that take effect May first will fundamentally change fishing in New Hampshire and the rest of New England. The rules are designed to rebuild depleted stocks of groundfish, such as cod and flounder. But fishermen say the new management policy hits New Hampshire fishermen particularly hard, and could put half the state's fishing boats out of business. New Hampshire Public Radio's Amy Quinton reports.

Dozens of New Hampshire fisherman packed into a small conference room recently in Portsmouth. They came to hear details about new groundfish rules set by the New England Fishery Management Council.

Those rules, for the first time, place a cap on the amount of groundfish that fisherman can catch off New England. Mark Grant, with the National Marine Fisheries Service, says the goal is to end overfishing and rebuild 13 of 19 protected fish species. "And so that reduction in itself is a huge problem, if you reduce the amount of fish people can catch either everyone makes less money, or less people go fishing," he says.

But there's an even bigger change under the new regulations. Fisherman can now join groups, called sectors, and each member of the sector shares the available catch. Those who opt out of those sectors face a decrease in the number of days they can fish, in how much they can catch per trip, and tighter restrictions on where they can fish.

Listen to the audio from the Maine Public Broadcasting Network.

 

 

 

 

 

Traditional New England groundfish like cod, pollock, and flounder could get a new lease on life as the region’s fishermen switch to an innovative way of divvying up the catch on Saturday.

While the majority of boat captains have signed on to new communal cooperatives, each with its own catch quota, the switch away from the fishing-derby practices of the past has been deeply controversial. Any delay in implementing the new system, however, would be a mistake: The best way to get the kinks out of the catch-share sectors, as the cooperatives are called, is to start the season and deal with problems as they arise.

From Rhode Island to Maine, fishermen have formed into 17 sectors, most based on geography, with each sector allocated a portion of the region’s quota for the groundfish species. Similar cooperatives have proven successful among Cape Cod hook fishermen and in Alaska as a way to head off overfishing.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.