January 29, 2018 — Groundfishermen can expect to have at-sea monitors aboard 15 percent of all sector trips in 2018, representing a very slight decline from the groundfish sector coverage rates in place for the current fishing season.
The question now is whether NOAA Fisheries will find money to reimburse groundfishermen for their at-sea monitoring costs as the agency has in the past two seasons.
In 2017, NOAA reimbursed groundfishermen for 60 percent of their at-sea monitoring expenses — estimated at about $710 per day per vessel — which was down significantly from the 85 percent reimbursement provided fishermen in 2016, the first year the industry was responsible for funding at-sea monitoring.
“We await the enactment of a final Fiscal Year 2018 appropriations bill to determine what funding may be available for the upcoming fishing season,” NOAA Fisheries said in the statement announcing the 2018 at-sea monitoring targets.
The 2018 at-sea monitoring target, established by using at-sea monitoring data from the past three full groundfishing seasons, represents a 1 percent decline from 2017 levels of 16 percent of all groundfish sector trips and a 1 percent increase over the percentage of 2016 sector trips.
“The total monitoring coverage, ultimately, should provide confidence that the overall catch estimate is accurate enough to ensure that sector fishing activities are consistent (with federal national standards) to prevent overfishing while achieving on a continuing basis optimum yield from the fishery,” according to NOAA Fisheries’ summary of the analysis used to set the coverage rate.
Some sector trips are excluded from the new coverage target rate.
“Those using gillnets with 10-inch or greater mesh in Southern New England and Inshore Georges Bank are excluded from the ASM requirement due to their low catch of groundfish species,” NOAA Fisheries said. “This further reduces the portion of sector trips subject to industry-funded monitoring and better focuses monitoring resources.”
The New England Fishery Management Council is scheduled to discuss industry-funded, at-sea monitoring on Tuesday, the first day of its two-day meetings next week in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times