PORTLAND, Maine – November 5, 2012 – The New England Fishery Management Council’s (NEFMC) Groundfish Oversight Committee met on Monday to continue development of Framework Adjustment 48 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. Over the course of the meeting, two issues stood out as focal points for a great deal of discussion and debate.
The first, dealt with how to approach closed area access, while the second focused on the allocation of Georges Bank and Southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder to the scallop fishery. Several comments relevant to these topics can be found below:
Regarding closed area access:
Listen to Groundfish Committee member, Terry Alexander, address the public’s concerns about opening up the closed areas.
Listen to Groundfish Committee Member, David Goethel, discuss the public’s perception of the closed areas and how these closures should be dealt with on an area-by-area basis.
Listen to Groundfish Committee member, Terry Alexander, discuss how overcomplicating the issue of closed area access will lead to a reduction in economic benefit to the industry.
Listen to Maggie Raymond, of Associated Fisheries of Maine, discuss the need for access to small and highly restricted closed areas as a way of providing the industry with increased economic opportunity.
Listen to Jim Odlin, of Atlantic Trawlers Fishing, discuss experimental fisheries permits and the haddock industry’s need for a fair and equitable approach to closed area access.
Listen to Drew Minkiewicz, of the Fisheries Survival Fund, discuss the redundancy of the closed areas under a catch share system and the importance of moving the Habitat Amendment forward in an expeditious fashion.
Listen to Vito Giacalone, of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, discuss the Omnibus Habitat Amendment and the effect of experimental fishing permits on the industry.
Listen to Greg Cunningham, of the Conservation Law Foundation, talk about his dissatisfaction with the sector exemption approach to opening up closed areas.
Regarding yellowtail flounder allocations to the scallop fishery:
Listen to Groundfish Committee member, David Pierce, discuss research related to yellowtail biomass in Georges Bank.
Listen to David Frulla, of the Fisheries Survival Fund, discuss some of the constraints surrounding the allocation of Georges Bank yellowtail to the scallop industry.
Listen to Vito Giacalone, of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, discuss the importance of establishing a yellowtail allocation.
Listen to Drew Minkiewicz, of the Fisheries Survival Fund, discuss the rationale and procedure behind setting an overfishing limit (OFL) for the yellowtail stock.
Listen to Groundfish Committee member, David Goethel, discuss the effect of the inaccurate stock assessment on the allocation of yellowtail flounder.
Listen to Jim Odlin, of Atlantic Trawlers Fishing, discuss the need to keep the yellowtail allocation fair and equitable and how such decisions were made in the past.
Listen to Drew Minkiewicz, of the Fisheries Survival Fund, discuss the scallop industry’s efforts to reduce bycatch, the flawed yellowtail stock assessment, and the yellowtail allocation alternatives.
Listen to Maggie Raymond, of Associated Fisheries of Maine, discuss the groundfish industry’s need for a fixed percentage yellowtail allocation.
Listen to Vito Giacalone, of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, discuss the uncertainty surrounding the yellowtail stock assessment and the effect of one yellowtail allocation alternative on the groundfish and haddock fisheries in Georges Bank.
Listen to David Frulla, of the Fisheries Survival Fund, discuss the effect of a yellowtail allocation on the scallop industry.
Listen to Drew Minkiewicz, of the Fisheries Survival Fund, discuss finding a reasonable yellowtail allocation alternative that maintains both the scallop and groundfish fisheries.
Listen to Vito Giacalone, of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, discuss allocating the groundfish resource fairly and equitably between the groundfish and scallop industries.
Listen to Groundfish Committee member, Frank Blount, discuss his view of the alternative that would allocate 90% of the yellowtail resource in Georges Bank to the scallop fishery.