Management & Regulation

The New England Fisheries Management Council has voted to reverse its controversial Novermber decision on Scallop regulations, selecting instead the less restrictive "F=0.24" option. The NEFMC took this action after considering opinions expressed by Gov. Deval Patrick, Congressman Barney Frank, New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang, Mass. State Senator Bruce Tarr, Mass. State Rep. William Strauss, Mass. State Rep. John Quinn, Mass. Sec'y of Energy and Environment Ian Bowles, Mass. Director of Fisheries Paul Diodati, 15 other Members of Congress, and over 1000 industry members and others.

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — A showdown over scallop limits — one that began building two months ago and turned abruptly in the office of Gov. Deval Patrick more than two weeks ago — careens toward a climax today at a meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council.

In the second day of the three-day session, the scallop catch plan for the New England and Middle Atlantic regions is first on the agenda, at 8:30 a.m.

Looking on is likely to be the largest audience in recent council history — including Scott Lang, mayor of New Bedford, who has led the fight against a conservative scallop catch decision, and in insurgency that's come to include industry and political forces from as far away as Virginia and the Carolinas.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The future of New England's scallop fishery — America's most profitable seafood stock — is squarely on the line tomorrow when the New England Fishery Management takes up the scallop catch limit as part of its three-day monthly meeting in Portsmouth, N.H.

Will the council ease the limits to those that would, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's own science statistics, allow for an economically viable catch and a sustainable stock?

That science, after all, has found that there are 300 million "harvestable" pounds of scallops, and that the stock would not be endangered by a take of 65 million pounds.

Or will the council stick to its heavy-handed, job-killing guns and keep the limit where it now stands — at 47 million pounds. That would, by many estimates, deal at least a $40 million blow to New England's seafood economy — and an unnecessary one at that.

The council's initial vote to cut to that level came on a 10-7 margin. And we'd like to think that, through the ensuing debate, enough council members will see the absurdity of the initial action.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

Corrections were made to the memo "Allocation of Yellowtail Flounder to the Scallop and Multispecies Fisheries" from November 13, 2009, and this updated memo was released by the NEFMC as part of the package of documents in preparation for the scallop reconsideration scheduled at the Council meeting in Portsmouth, NH. Read the memo here.

For more than a quarter of a century, the ocean has been a central part of my life.

I take paying customers out to fish a variety of species, including summer flounder, striped bass, cod, tuna and shark. I grew up on the sea and learned about the ocean from my father. When I was 10, he bought me my first 12-foot wooden skiff, which I motored around Narragansett Bay. My father was also a high-school science teacher who taught oceanography, biology and aquaculture. For him, the sea has always been about education and respect. Together we now operate a two-boat charter fishing and diving business.

For much of my career I kept my head down and focused on what I do best — fish. But, as a charter-boat operator, an important part of my job is education. After spending thousands of hours on the ocean, one lesson is becoming increasingly clear — the ocean is not limitless; nor is our current industry model sustainable.

Read the complete story at The Providence Journal.

This Power Point presentation is the NEFMC Staff Presentation pertaining to the review and possible reconsideration of Scallop Framework 21.  It was posted as part of the package of documents in preparation for the scallop reconsideration scheduled at the Council meeting in Portsmouth, NH.
See the Power Point presentation here.

Prospects look good as Gulf of Mexico reef fish skippers transition to a grouper-tilefish individual fishing quota program.

In mid-November, having weathered a longline shutdown and a late-season tropical storm that brought the entire fleet back to the docks simultaneously, the market was robust.

Red grouper was bringing $2.90 a pound ex-vessel at Fishbusterz in John’s Pass, Madeira Beach, Fla., well above the 2009 official state average of $2.33.

“This storm sent all of our boats to the dock,” says boat owner and dock manager Greg Pruitt. “Normally when that happens, you get a price drop. That didn’t happen. We don’t have a fish in the house right now.”

Read the complete story at National Fisherman.

The National Marine Fisheries Service’s Scientific and Statistical Committee reported that 80 million pounds of scallops could be legally caught without exceeding the overfishing limit, and that 65 million pounds of caught scallops was both sustainable and precautionary with only a 25 percent chance of the scallop biomass being overfished.

The scallop industry supported a proposed catch of 47 million pounds, 18 million pounds less than the conservative allowable catch that would keep the 2010 fishing days at sea the same as 2009.

When the scallop industry realized it was going to lose more fishing days without a reasonable explanation, it asked local, state, and federal representatives for support in persuading the council to revisit the issue. Governor Patrick asked the council chairman, John Pappalardo, to come to his office on a Sunday in order to understand the issue, and to ask Pappalardo to allow the council to reconsider its vote.

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.

This Sea Scallop Fact sheet was prepared by the NEFMC staff as part of the package of documents in preparation for the scallop reconsideration scheduled at the Council meeting in Portsmouth, NH. Read the sea scallop fact sheet here.

Paul Weckesser, a New Bedford scallop boat owner, wrote the following in a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe.

"The National Marine Fisheries Service’s Scientific and Statistical Committee reported that 80 million pounds of scallops could be legally caught without exceeding the overfishing limit, and that 65 million pounds of caught scallops was both sustainable and precautionary with only a 25 percent chance of the scallop biomass being overfished.  The scallop industry supported a proposed catch of 47 million pounds, 18 million pounds less than the conservative allowable catch that would keep the 2010 fishing days at sea the same as 2009."

"When the scallop industry realized it was going to lose more fishing days without a reasonable explanation, it asked local, state, and federal representatives for support in persuading the council to revisit the issue. Governor Patrick asked the council chairman, John Pappalardo, to come to his office on a Sunday in order to understand the issue, and to ask Pappalardo to allow the council to reconsider its vote."

Read the complete story at The Boston Globe.