June 21, 2012 – Fishermen fighting to stay in business after their yellowtail flounder catch was slashed 80 percent got a hand, and tons more fish, from the Northeast's scallop fleet Thursday.
The New England Fishery Management Council voted to shift nearly half of the yellowtail catch allotted to the scallopers to fishermen who chase cod and other bottom-dwelling groundfish. It amounts to a nearly 70 percent increase in the fishermen's yellowtail catch this year.
In return, the scallopers won't be penalized if they exceed their new, lower catch limit for yellowtail.
While the transfer offers some relief, it's not enough to offset the steep initial cut, enacted May 1. And preliminary data discussed at the council meeting in Portland, Maine, indicates the yellowtail catch might see another drastic reduction in 2013.
Still, fishing advocates welcomed the extra fish.
"We must have a today, in order to have a tomorrow. We've got to do something," said Vito Calomo, a former commercial fisherman now working for U.S. Sen. Scott Brown.
The yellowtail aren't a high-value fish, pulling in $4.1 million in 2010 in New England, compared to $22 million for haddock, for instance. But fishermen can't exceed their yellowtail catch limits, or they must stop fishing for all species. And the low catch limit also prevents them from chasing the more valuable fish the yellowtail swim among, for fear of pulling up too much yellowtail.
Each year, fishing managers set a yellowtail catch limit for scallopers, who inevitably catch the fish inadvertently. This year, scallopers received an allotment of about 307 metric tons. Fishermen, meanwhile, received just 218 metric tons, down from about 1,120 in 2011.
The cut is so restricting, that fishermen have repeatedly warned it could lead to an industry collapse.
Possible relief via the scallop fleet has been discussed for weeks. The lucrative scallop fleet, which pulled in $265 million in 2010, has grown increasingly skilled at avoiding yellowtail and was confident it wouldn't catch its full allotment.
On Thursday, the council shifted 150 metric tons of yellowtail catch from the scallopers to fishermen, bumping up the fishermen's total to 368 metric tons while leaving the scallopers with about 157.
Read the full story from Jay Lindsay of the Associated Press at the Boston Globe.