SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton – July 6, 2011 – Butterfish is an example of a small fishery that desperately needs more resources and attention from NOAA. It is currently the 4th most abundant fish in the bottom trawl survey, yet the directed fishery is about to be closed.
Butterfish used to support an export fishery to Japan, but without increases in tonnage to the directed fishery, that market cannot be recovered.
This week, NOAA announced that 80 percent of the butterfish quota for the 2011 fishing year has been harvested. "Therefore, effective July 6, 2011, vessels issued Federal butterfish permits may not possess or land more than 250 lbs. of butterfish per trip or per calendar day. Federally permitted dealers may not purchase more than 250 lbs of butterfish per vessel per day."
The directed fishery will reopen at 0001 hours, January 1, 2012, when the 2012 butterfish quota will become available.
This type of trip limit leads to a high level of discards, since these fish are abundant and tend to school, sometimes leading to tows with greater than 250 lbs. of fish and making it very difficult for a vessel to bring in 250 lbs without a large amount of discards. The trip limit effectively ends the directed fishery.
The bulk of the butterfish allocation is as by-catch in the loligo squid fishery – and this allocation is on track so that no closure of the squid fishery is likely. At this time, only about 32% of the butterfish by catch has been taken. NOAA says that under no circumstances would the squid fishery be closed in the second harvesting period due to butterfish mortality – any overage would be deducted from the year end period. The current squid fishing period has a cap of 10.07 million lbs, which represents 90% of the quota for the period. If this cap is reached the squid fishery will close.
This article is partially reproduced with permission from Seafood.com, a subscription news service.