May 14, 2014 — With the current burden of reducing coastwide harvests being implemented unequally among ASMFC member states, a fair and effective enforcement strategy for Fishing Year 2014 is badly needed.
The following opinion piece originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Opinion] by Ben Landry May 14, 2014
Ben Landry is Director of Public Affairs for Omega Protein Corporation. He wrote this opinion piece prior to the ASMFC spring meetings.
In December 2012, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) adopted historic regulations for the commercial Atlantic menhaden fishery, requiring a 20 percent reduction in coastwide harvests. At the time, most member states strongly supported the cuts, and few states besides Virginia offered vocal opposition.
But a year after the harvest cuts officially went into effect, issues of enforcement abound, and questions of fairness and transparency overshadow the initial push by many states for these controversial cuts. From instances of states flatly refusing to enforce their new, lowered allocations to eyebrow raising, state-specific regulatory changes, the current state of commercial Atlantic menhaden management is far from clear.
Total coastwide menhaden landings remain within the new Total Allowable Catch (TAC) set by the ASMFC, but state-specific allocations have been far exceeded in a number of instances, and in several cases, some states appear to have taken little if any effort to enforce the same regulations for which they voted in 2012.
New York, Maryland, Delaware, the Potomac River Fisheries Commission, Florida and Rhode Island all exceeded their TACs, which are based on a 20 percent reduction of the three-year average of menhaden landings in each state's waters from 2009-2011.
Some of these overages were more significant than others: New York exceeded its quota by over 400 percent, the largest overage in percentage terms, while Maryland caught over its quota by 35 percent, which, at around 1.8 million pounds, is the largest in absolute terms. In some cases, states exceeded their quota because their initial allocation was very low, but other states, particularly Maryland and New York, adopted policies during last year's fishing season that directly resulted in an allocation overage.
New York State announced last year, for example, that it would not enforce its 200,000-pound catch limit on menhaden. According to a report from Newsday, officials there cited a lack of confidence in the fisheries data that was used to set the allocations as the reason for ignoring the new limits. This decision ultimately allowed New York fishermen to catch over 1 million pounds of menhaden in 2014. That amount totals four times the level set by the ASMFC in accordance with the cuts that New York strongly supported and for which its ASMFC representatives voted in December 2012.
Of the ASMFC member states, Maryland was the most vocally supportive of coastwide menhaden harvest cuts. However, Maryland was able to avoid any real reduction in its landings by taking advantage of regulatory loopholes. Specifically, the state lobbied for, and the ASMFC approved, a provision allowing menhaden to be caught beyond a state's allotted quota, as long as it was considered bycatch. Under this new rule, the state's pound net fishermen can catch up to 6,000 pounds of menhaden per day as bycatch, or 12,000 pounds if two fishermen with appropriate permits are working aboard the same vessel.
Maryland shut down its directed fishery early in the season. But despite running a nominally bycatch-only fishery for most of the year, Maryland still substantially exceeded its quota. The state appears to have taken few steps to limit or control the large amount of menhaden caught and landed as bycatch, as that ultimately accounted for more than half of Maryland's total landings.
By year's end, Maryland's total 2013 landings were actually around 12 percent higher than its 2009-2011 average. So, rather than a documented, observable 20 percent decrease in landings, as mandated by the same regulations for which Maryland championed in 2012, the state actually saw its landings increase. By far, Maryland recorded the largest bycatch of any statewide Atlantic menhaden fishery.
Virginia is the only jurisdiction in the Chesapeake Bay to see its landings decrease in accordance with ASMFC regulations, with both Maryland and the Potomac River Fisheries Commission exceeding their TAC. Virginia is home to what is by far the largest menhaden fishery on the East Coast, and was allocated 80 percent of the overall coastwide TAC. But Virginia caught less than its allotted 321 million pounds, representing an estimated 20 percent decrease from its 2009-2011 average landings.
New Jersey, the state with the second largest allocation and home to one of the East Coast's largest menhaden bait fisheries, was also able to successfully manage its quota. With the second largest share of the coastwide TAC, behind only Virginia, New Jersey also achieved a 20 percent reduction over its 2009-2011 average.
Other states with relatively smaller quotas, like North Carolina and Connecticut, recorded landings so far below their allocations that they are largely to thank for an intact coastwide TAC. But on a state-specific level, numerous examples demonstrate a fundamental and troubling disconnect between the regulatory processes of discussing and enacting harvest cuts and actually enforcing and abiding by them.
Going into this week's ASMFC Spring meeting, the Commission is tasked with ensuring that regulations such as those restricting commercial menhaden harvests are applied and enforced equitably amongst all member states. With the current burden of reducing coastwide harvests being implemented unequally among ASMFC member states, a fair and effective enforcement strategy for Fishing Year 2014 is badly needed.
Saving Seafood has analyzed 2013 menhaden landings data and produced a table approximating the year's landings and indicating which states have exceeded and have not exceeded their quota. View the table here.