February 28, 2013 — New fishing grounds are being added to the highly successful system developed by UMass to avoid catching yellowtail flounder in the Northeast, it was announced Wednesday.
The 2013 program, which begins Friday, will include open area scallop fishing grounds in Georges Bank and Southern New England, in addition to the open and limited access areas in Georges Bank included in the previous three years.
In the program, fishing vessels that volunteer send real-time information back to scientists at the UMass Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology. The boats report what kind of yellowtail activity is being found in squares on a grid map.
Dr. Brian Rothschild, dean emeritus of the UMass School for Marine Science and Technology, said the program "has reduced the ratio of yellowtail to scallops and because of that it has been an economic boon to the fishery."
Asked if he thinks it might become permanent, Rothschild said "Yes, I think it will. And I think it will be generalized even further to come up with different ways of avoiding bycatch."
"Fish species are not uniformly distributed," he said. "In Place A there will be more of Species X and at Place B there will be Species Y. It varies." This will enable the fleet to have better knowledge "about where the fish are."
The system reflects the fact that avoiding certain endangered or overfished species is as difficult as is finding them. The fewer yellowtail that fishermen catch, the longer they can keep fishing for scallops.
Longtime fisherman and boat owner Rodney Avila said: "It's a good program that works. When there's a high concentration of yellowtail, the boats all leave and go to another area.
"That's a positive thing. All the fishermen will agree with that."
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times