WASHINGTON (Saving Seafood) — September 24, 2013 — Eyebrows were raised recently when National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) representatives announced in several forums that the agency would only approve an allocation of 400 metric tons of Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, despite determinations by the Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee (TRAC), the New England Fishery Management Council’s (NEFMC) Groundfish Plan Development Team (PDT), and the NEFMC's Science and Statistical Committee (SSC), which merely stated that the recommended level should be under 500 mt. Many industry observers anticipated that the catch level sought by the U.S. delegation to the Transboundary Management Guidance Committee (TMGC) would be higher than 400, falling somewhere between that figure and 500 mt., but most likely 450 mt.
NOTE: This story was updated on September 25 to reflect new information that has become available.
The process began at the June meeting of the TRAC in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. There the committee recommended that the catch level for yellowtail flounder be “substantially lower than 500 mt.,” due to the high levels of uncertainty in the yellowtail assessment model. After reviewing the TRAC’s recommendations prior to the August meeting of the SSC, the Groundfish PDT concluded that they could not agree on either a catch level or an OFL. They only agreed with the TRAC that any allocation be “lower than 500 mt.”
In August, the Council’s SSC reached conclusions similar to the TRAC and the PDT. They determined that they could not recommend an OFL, but echoed the previous advice of the TRAC and the PDT that, “to the extent practicable,” the overall allocation should be less than 500 mt. Saving Seafood provided coverage of this meeting, with audio highlights.
On September 10 and 11, the TMGC met in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The American delegation, composed of 4 members of the NEFMC, and one representative from both the NOAA Northeast Regional Office (NERO) and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), initially proposed a yellowtail allocation of 450 mt.
At the meeting, the NERO representative advised that NOAA would only approve a yellowtail allocation of 400 mt. As a result of previous consultations between Northeast Regional Administrator John Bullard and former NEFMC Chairman Rip Cunningham, NOAA provided its requirements in advance to guide discussion at the TMGC. Accordingly, the other members of the delegation determined it would be moot to proceed with the 450 mt proposal. At the conclusion of the meeting, the TMGC agreed to the 400 mt catch level.
At a meeting last week, the NEFMC’s Groundfish Committee agreed to an Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) level of 425 mt, but did not agree on an OFL. The Committee was informed by the NMFS General Counsel that NMFS would not approve a catch level higher that 400 mt.
In a letter to Acting NEFMC Chairman Ernest Stockwell, NOAA Northeast Regional Director John Bullard explained the agency’s rationale for advocating a lower catch limit than the maximum possible under the guidance offered by the TRAC, PDT, and SSC. Mr. Bullard wrote that the agency’s position is consistent with the recommendations of the TRAC and the SSC, as well as with NOAA’s federal mandate to “make a determination that the quota will have a sufficient probability of preventing overfishing.” Noting both that the Georges Bank yellowtail stock was in poor condition and the uncertainty in the yellowtail assessment, Mr. Bullard stated that the 400 mt. limit would provide the necessary “uncertainty buffer,” as well as guarantee growth in the stock. Mr. Bullard also stated that the US share of the quota would be similar to the total US catch in previous years, and thus the 400 mt. limit was consistent with the advice that catch be reduced “as much as practicable.”
Read the letter from John Bullard to NEFMC Chairman Ernest Stockwell