Fishermen are projecting that this city’s booming sea scallop industry will take a 25 percent revenue hit in 2010 due to proposed cuts in the scallop harvest.
Regional fisheries regulators recently voted in favor of the cuts, which they argue are necessary to ensure that scallop stocks remain at sustainable levels and do not become subject to overfishing.
The New England Fishery Management Council chose a conservative method for calculating the sustainable level of scallop harvest for the 2010 fishing season, which begins March 1. As a result, fishermen will be allowed to harvest about 16 percent of commercially sized scallops.
With recent surveys showing the scallop stock is in good condition, fishermen say they should be allowed to harvest more of the shellfish.
With recent surveys showing the scallop stock is in good condition, fishermen say they should be allowed to harvest more of the shellfish.
"The council is taking a very, very conservative approach, and we don’t feel that it is justified," said Roy Enoksen, president of Eastern Fisheries Inc., a New Bedford company that operates the largest fleet in the industry with 23 scallopers.
"I think everyone in the industry would go along with this if they thought it was in the least bit necessary to preserve the stock," Enoksen said. "But we have a resource that is completely rebuilt and in very good shape."
The proposed cuts, which need final approval from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service, would do two things. First, they would reduce by one the number of scallop trips allowed into so-called access areas, or areas of the ocean that regulators periodically close to fishing so that scallop stocks can rebuild. In 2009, scallopers were granted five access area trips. The new rules would allow four such trips in 2010.
Read the complete story at The South Coast Today.