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Atlantic Sea Scallop Group Calls on BOEM to Ensure “Mutual Prosperity” of Fisheries and Offshore Wind Industries

January 12, 2022 — The following was released by the Fisheries Survival Fund:

Today, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) announced it will conduct a wind lease auction for 480,000 acres of ocean in the New York Bight area of the Atlantic. In public comments submitted late last week, the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), which represents the vast majority of full-time Atlantic sea scallop fishermen, called on federal regulators to create an “adaptive and proactive mitigation plan” that will allow both fisheries and offshore wind to prosper.

“It is unquestionable that the proliferation of new turbine arrays will have detrimental impacts on the scallop fishery and other fisheries,” FSF wrote. “Windfarms will and demonstrably do change ocean ecosystems. The goal of mitigation should be to strike a balance that ensures mutual prosperity, not merely an uneasy, zero-sum co-existence.”

The Atlantic sea scallop fishery is the most valuable federally-managed wild-caught fishery in the United States, worth $570 million in ex-vessel value and $746 million in total processed value in 2019. FSF’s comments were sent to BOEM in response to a request for information on offshore wind fisheries mitigation.

Across 15 pages of detailed recommendations, FSF called on BOEM to take a long-term, flexible approach to reducing impacts to scallops, which are extremely sensitive to changes in the ocean environment. This approach should ensure “cohesive and meaningful coordination between fishing communities, developers, state agencies, and federal regulators.” BOEM should also identify high-risk areas to be protected and require baseline surveys to be conducted immediately.

While FSF supports a comprehensive compensation plan that addresses direct and indirect losses to scallop fishermen, the top priority should be avoiding and mitigating such losses from the outset.

FSF wrote that BOEM should “ensure that the fishing community and the fisheries technical community are able to work collaboratively with wind developers.” They urged BOEM to work with the fishery management councils’ technical plan development teams “that are experts in conservation and management of the specific fisheries resources under their jurisdiction.” They noted that facilitated workshops “may be useful if they are interactive and not simply listening sessions,” and expressed concern that “developers conducting mere desktop exercises to simply check a NEPA box are neither sufficient to mitigate impacts comprehensively nor to compensate fisheries fully and accurately.”

The comments also detail the scallop industry’s proactive approach to research and management that has taken scallops from a low point in the 1990s to one of the most lucrative fisheries in the country today. FSF called on offshore wind developers to support scallop research through research grants and access and logistical support for marine scientists.

“Just as scallop fishermen made sacrifices to mitigate their negative impacts on the fishery years ago, FSF’s proposed strategy here may require sacrifices on the part of [offshore wind] developers that want to operate, and will change the ecosystems, in the ocean commons,” FSF wrote.

Read FSF’s full comments on offshore wind fisheries mitigation here.

 

NOAA Fisheries Announces Proposed Rule for Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan

October 5. 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Today, NOAA Fisheries published a proposed rule for Amendment 21 to the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery Management Plan. The New England Fishery Management Council developed Amendment 21 to adjust the management of the Northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) as well as the limited access general category (LAGC) individual fishing quota (IFQ) program to support overall economic performance of the fishery while allowing for continued participation in the general category fishery.

Amendment 21 would:

•Account for biomass in the NGOM as part of the Overfishing Limit and the Acceptable Biological Catch to be consistent with other portions of scallop resource management.•Develop landing limits for all permit categories in the NGOM and establish an 800,000 lb NGOM Set-Aside trigger for the NGOM directed fishery.

•Expand the scallop observer program to monitor directed scallop fishing in the NGOM.

•Allocate 25,000 lb of the NGOM allocation to increase the overall Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA).

•Increase the LAGC IFQ possession limit to 800 lb per trip only for access area trips.

•Prorate the daily observer compensation rate in 12-hour increments for observed LAGC IFQ trips longer than 1 day.

•Allow for temporary transfers of IFQ from limited access vessels with IFQ to LAGC IFQ-only vessels.

For more information, read the proposed rule as filed in the Federal Register. The comment period is open through November 4, 2021. Submit your comments through the e-rulemaking portal.

Questions?

Fishermen: Contact Travis Ford, Sustainable Fisheries, 978-281-9233

Media: Contact Allison Ferreira, Regional Office, 978-281-9103

NEFMC SSC: Live Listen – Wednesday, October 13, 2021 (Scallop Issues)

October 5, 2021 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee will meet by webinar to discuss issues related to Atlantic sea scallops.  The public is invited to listen live.  Here are the details.

WHEN:  Wednesday, October 13, 2021

START TIME:  9:00 a.m.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting is available at Listen Live.  There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.  The Remote Participation Guide is posted here.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (562) 247-8422.  The access code is 606-978-888.  Please be aware that if you dial in using this number without joining the webinar at the link above, you will be unable to speak during opportunities for public comment.  This is a listen-only telephone option.  Your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The SSC will meet to:

  • Review information provided by the Council’s Scallop Plan Development Team;
  • Recommend overfishing limits (OFLs) and acceptable biological catches (ABCs) for Atlantic sea scallops for fishing years 2022 and 2023, with 2023 being default specifications; and
  • Consider other business as necessary.

COMMENTS:  The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 8:00 a.m. on Monday, October 11, 2021.  Address comments to Council Chairman Eric Reid or Executive Director Tom Nies and email them to comments@nefmc.org.  Additional information is available in the meeting notice.

MATERIALS:  All documents for this meeting will be posted on the SSC October 13, 2021 meeting webpage.

QUESTIONS:  Contact Joan O’Leary at (978) 465-0492, ext. 101, joleary@nefmc.org or Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817,jplante@nefmc.org. 

Atlantic scallop haul tops 60 million pounds

May 24, 2019 — The valuable 13-month Atlantic sea scallop 2018 fishing year wrapped up on March 31, with prices strong for final landings. While final data is not yet available, preliminary NOAA estimates for fishing year 2018 show 60.1 million pounds landed.

“This is 107 percent of the projected landings for fishing year 2018, but that does not represent an overage of any type,” said Travis Ford, NOAA’s sea scallops fishery manager.

“At the beginning of the year, the price took a bit of a dive because of the influx of product, but ended up leveling out later in the year,” said Ford.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Feds propose rules for scallop fishery with season coming

February 22, 2019 — This year’s Atlantic sea scallop fishing year begins in several weeks, and federal regulators are proposing new management measures for the valuable fishery.

The fishing season for scallops begins on April 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says it plans to set quota and other allocations that are similar to those set for the previous year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at WABI-5

NOAA Fisheries Proposes Management Measures for the Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishery 2019 Fishing Year

February 20, 2019 — The following was released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration:

Today, NOAA Fisheries published the proposed rule to set management measures for the Atlantic Sea Scallop fishery for the 2019 fishing year (April 1, 2019 – March 31, 2020). Framework 30 would:

  • Set specifications for the scallop fishery for fishing year 2019, including days-at-sea (DAS) allocations, individual fishing quotas (IFQs), and sea scallop access area trip allocations. These allocations would be similar to those set in the 2018 fishing year. This action would also set precautionary default 2020 specifications, in case we implement the next framework after the April 1, 2020 start of the 2020 fishing year;
  • Allocate effort into three rotational access areas (Mid-Atlantic, Nantucket Lightship-West, and Closed Area 1). Scallop landings allocated to Closed Area 1 would be “flexible” and could be landed from any available access area;
  • Set a 205,000 lb Northern Gulf of Maine total allowable catch (TAC) for 2019 that would be split as 137,500 lb for the limited access general category (LAGC) and 67,500 lb for the limited access fleet;
  • Standardize default specifications for limited access DAS and LAGC IFQ allocations; and
  • Standardize the approach used to set the number of access area trips available to the LAGC IFQ fleet.

To get all the details on these proposed modifications, read the proposed rule as published in the Federal Register today.

We are accepting comments through March 7, 2019.

Please submit comments either through the online e-rulemaking portal or by mailing your comments to:

Michael Pentony, Regional Administrator
National Marine Fisheries Service
55 Great Republic Drive
Gloucester, MA, 01930.

Please mark the outside of the envelope, “Comments on the Proposed Rule for Scallop Framework 30.”

Questions?
Fishermen: Contact Travis Ford at 978-281-9233
Media: Contact Allison Ferreira at 978-281-9103 or at

MASSACHUSETTS: SouthCoast Man of the Year: Kevin Stokesbury continues to seek solutions to fishing industry challenges

December 31, 2018 —  It’s pretty well known around these parts that homegrown research proved the ocean held more Atlantic sea scallops than federal regulators thought.

And a lot of folks know that the value of those succulent bivalves has made New Bedford the highest-grossing fishing port in America for 18 years running.

Starting in the late 1990s, Professor Kevin Stokesbury of the School for Marine Science and Technology at UMass Dartmouth, working with SMAST founding dean Brian Rothschild, developed a video technique to count scallops on the seafloor without harvesting or killing them.

Along the way, he pioneered a partnership with local fishermen.

Some fishermen say the research saved the New Bedford scallop industry. (Other observers point out that federal regulations protected the species at critical times.)

Read the full story at New Bedford Standard-Times

How Smart Fishery Management Saved The Atlantic Sea Scallop

January 24, 2017 — Scallops taught the United States an important lesson in sustainability.

A smart fishery management plan was meant to relieve suffering cod and flounder populations, but it also prevented the Atlantic sea scallop market from fizzling out in the ’90s.

In 1991, New England fisheries yielded 37 million pounds of scallops. Scientists started to worry when scallop landings dropped to less than 10 million pounds in 1994.

Then, regulators closed three fisheries along the Georges Bank, an underwater plateau between Massachusetts and Nova Scotia. They also temporarily stopped issuing new fishing licenses, and they rotated access to certain fishing grounds.

Read the full story and watch the video at Newsy

NEFMC: Hosting Inshore Atlantic Sea Scallop Fishing Workshop, Feb 22-23

December 22, 2015 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC):

The New England Fishery Management Council will host a workshop on February 22-23, 2016 to explore concerns about inshore scallop fishing. It will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick, RI.

Discussions will build on and contribute to ideas expressed in the Council’s May 2015 white paper on this issue. The Council has enlisted the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum (Fisheries Forum) to assist in developing the workshop agenda and facilitate discussions.

For more information, including background material and registration forms, see Sea Scallop Workshop, Feb 22-23, 2016. If you have questions, please contact Deirdre Boelke at dboelke@nefmc.org.

2016/2017 Atlantic Scallop Research Set-Aside Funding Opportunity – Proposals Due October 31, 2015

September 9, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Many of you may have already heard about this opportunity to apply for research funds generated via the Scallop Research Set-Aside Program. If not, please see this announcement for the details and contact information.

Please forward to all interested parties – For questions, please contact Cheryl.Corbett@noaa.gov 

2016/2017 Atlantic Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program – Proposals Due October 31, 2015

NMFS, in coordination with the New England Fishery Management Council (Council), is soliciting Atlantic Sea Scallop (scallop) research proposals to utilize scallop Total Allowable Catch (TAC) that has been set-aside by the Council to fund scallop research endeavors through the 2016/2017 Atlantic Sea Scallop Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program. No federal funds are provided for research under this notification. Rather, proceeds generated from the sale of RSA quota will be used to fund research activities and compensate vessels that participate in research activities and/or harvest set-aside quota. 

The 2016/2017 Atlantic Sea Scallop Federal Funding Opportunity is summarized below and attached, and is also available athttp://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/coopresearch/pdfs/NOAA-NMFS-NEFSC-2016-2004548-FFO-Published-Report.pdf   To apply for this NOAA Federal Funding Opportunity, go to www.grants.gov, and use the following funding opportunity #: NOAA-NMFS-NEFSC-2016-2004548.

Complete proposals/applications must be received on or before 5 p.m. EDT on 10/31/2015. Proposals received after the established deadline will be rejected and returned to the sender without consideration. For proposals submitted through www.Grants.gov, a date and time receipt indication will be the basis of determining timeliness. The proposal must be validated by Grants.gov in order to be considered timely. PLEASE NOTE: It may take Grants.gov up to two (2) business days to validate or reject the application. Please keep this in mind in developing your submission timeline. For those without access to the Internet, one signed original and two hard copy applications must be postmarked or received by the established due date for the program at the following address: Cheryl A. Corbett, NMFS, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, ATTN: 2016/2017 Atlantic Scallop Research Set-Aside Program.

Projects funded under the Atlantic Sea Scallop RSA Program must enhance the understanding of the scallop resource or contribute to scallop fishery management decisions. Priority is given to funding research proposals addressing the below list of 2016 and 2017 Atlantic Sea Scallop Research Priorities.  Applicants responding to scallop survey priorities should be aware that 2-year survey proposals will be accepted under this competition. Additionally, such applicants are encouraged to review and consider the findings of the Scallop Survey Methodologies Peer Review, which was convened by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center in March 2015. This includes efforts to increase the level of coordination between scallop survey efforts. Reports and additional information for this peer review are posted at: www.nefsc.noaa.gov/saw/scallop-2015 

2016 and 2017 Atlantic Sea Scallop Research Priorities

HIGHEST (listed in order of importance)

1. Survey Related Research (a, b, and c have equal priority)

  • 1a. an intensive industry-based survey of each of the relevant scallop access areas (Closed Area I, Closed Area II, Nantucket Lightship, Delmarva, Elephant Trunk and Hudson Canyon) that will provide estimates of total and exploitable biomass to be used for setting fishery catch limits under the rotational area management program. To support these area management decisions, survey data and biomass estimates must be available by early August of the year in which the survey is conducted (e.g. survey results that would inform 2017 fishing area decisions must be available by August 2016). Areas scheduled to be open in the following fishing year generally have a higher priority than other areas. For 2016 the priority areas are likely to be: Elephant Trunk, Hudson Canyon, the access area in southern part of Closed Area II, the access area in Nantucket Lightship including the extension to the east as well as to the west within the current EFH closed area where small scallops have been observed, and to the north of the Closed Area I access area within the current EFH closed area that has known concentrations of scallops. For 2017 the priority areas are: Elephant Trunk, the access area in the southern part of Closed Area II, and the access area in Nantucket Lightship with extension to the east. If boundaries of scallop access areas change as a result of a future Council action, then applicants may be requested to adjust their survey to be consistent with new or modified access area boundaries. Additionally, applicants should note that the priority areas listed here may change based on results of 2015 surveys and/or feedback from the scallop fishing industry. Therefore, applicants may be requested to adjust their proposed survey to meet these emergent survey needs.
  • 1b. an intensive industry-based survey of areas that may be candidate access areas in the future (i.e., open areas with high scallop recruitment or closed areas that may open to fishing). Examples areas include the Northern Edge of Georges Bank in and around Closed Area II, the northern part of Closed Area I that is currently part of an essential fish habitat (EFH) closed area, east and west of the Nantucket Lightship scallop Access Area, south of Closed Area II, and south of Nantucket Lightship along the 40 fathom curve to Hudson Canyon. Seasonal monitoring of candidate access areas will be considered to monitor the survival of small scallops.
  • 1c. a broad, resource wide industry-based survey of scallops within Georges Bank and/or Mid-Atlantic resource areas. The survey or surveys do not need to be carried out by a single grant recipient. The primary objective of these surveys would be to provide an additional broadscale biomass index to improve the overall precision of the scallop biomass estimate produced by the Scallop Plan Development Team. Survey results must be available by early August of the year in which the survey is conducted (e.g. survey results that would inform 2017 fishing effort decisions must be available by early August 2016).

2. Bycatch research – Identification and evaluation of methods to reduce the impacts of the scallop fishery with respect to bycatch. This would include projects that determine seasonal bycatch rates, characterize spatial and temporal distribution patterns, gear modifications to reduce bycatch and avoid fishery conflicts, as well as the associated discard mortality rates of yellowtail flounder, windowpane flounder, lobster, and other key bycatch species. Research efforts should be targeted to provide results that would help the scallop industry avoid pending or potential implementation of accountability measures.

3. Scallop area management research – Such research would include, but would not be limited to, research to actively manage spat collection and seeding of sea scallops; and research aimed at describing the occurrence, as well as understanding the mechanisms, of processes that affect scallop product quality (i.e., scallops with grey meats or evidence of disease/parasites).

MEDIUM (not listed in order of importance): 

4. Research on scallop predation and ways to mitigate predation impacts (e.g. starfish, crab and dogfish)

5. Research to support the investigation of loggerhead turtle behavior in the Mid-Atlantic (via satellite tagging or other means) to understand their seasonal movements, vertical habitat utilization, and how and where interactions with scallop dredge gear are occurring. This includes monitoring of scallop dredge and scallop trawl operations, and the development of further gear modifications if monitoring should indicate current designs are not eliminating the threat or harm to sea turtles or are resulting in unacceptable reductions in scallop catch.

OTHER (not listed in order of importance):

6. Habitat characterization research including (but not limited to): before after control impact (BACI) dredge studies; identification of nursery and over-wintering habitats of species that are vulnerable to habitat alteration by scallop fishing; evaluation of long-term or chronic effects of scallop fishing on the ecosystem; and habitat recovery potential from fine scale fishing effort. In particular, projects that would evaluate present and candidate EFH closures to assess whether these areas are accomplishing their stated purposes and to assist better definition of the complex ecosystem processes that occur in these areas. Finally, investigation of variability in dredging efficiency across habitats, times, areas, and gear designs to allow for more accurate quantitative estimates of scallop dredge impacts on the seabed and development of practicable methods to minimize or mitigate those impacts. 

7. Research projects designed to either 1) examine whether chemicals, water quality, and other environmental stressors affect reproduction and growth of scallops (e.g. jet fuel, pesticides, ocean acidification, etc.); or 2) research other scallop biology projects, including studies aimed at understanding recruitment processes (reproduction, timing of spawning, larval and early post-settlement stages), and seasonal growth patterns of scallop shell height and meat and gonad weight (which could include analysis of Northeast Fisheries Science Center archived scallop shells from the 1980s and 1990s).

8. Discard mortality of scallops. The assumed discard mortality rate used in the scallop stock assessment is very uncertain. Research that would improve the understandings of discard mortality and refine the assumed discard mortality rate would be useful, especially if projects are able to assess variability due to habitat, season, and gears, as well as the magnitude scallops discarded at sea and not landed due to scallop meat quality issues.

9. Incidental mortality of scallops. The assumed incidental mortality rate used in the scallop stock assessment is very uncertain. Research that would evaluate the effect of the four inch rings and mesh twine tops on incidental mortality would be useful.

10. Other resource surveys to expand and/or enhance survey coverage in areas that have the potential to be important resource areas, but which currently lack comprehensive survey coverage (e.g. inshore areas east of the current NOAA Fisheries survey strata or deeper than the surveyed area, Northern Gulf of Maine resource, etc.).

11. Develop methodologies or alternative ways for the scallop fleet to collect and analyze catch and bycatch data on a near real-time basis (i.e., collection of scallop meat weight and quality data, specific bycatch information, etc. Potential ideas include, but are not limited to: concepts like a scallop “Study Fleet”, electronic monitoring, dockside monitors, scallop bag tags, etc.)

For questions on this or any other RSA Program, please contact Cheryl.Corbett@noaa.gov or visit www.nefsc.noaa.gov/coopresearch/rsa_program.html

Read the Scallop RSA FFO here

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