This Power Point presentation is the NEFMC Staff Presentation pertaining to the review and possible reconsideration of Scallop Framework 21. It was posted as part of the package of documents in preparation for the scallop reconsideration scheduled at the Council meeting in Portsmouth, NH.
See the Power Point presentation here.
Higher prices signal prosperity coming as reef fish skippers transition to IFQs
Prospects look good as Gulf of Mexico reef fish skippers transition to a grouper-tilefish individual fishing quota program.
In mid-November, having weathered a longline shutdown and a late-season tropical storm that brought the entire fleet back to the docks simultaneously, the market was robust.
Red grouper was bringing $2.90 a pound ex-vessel at Fishbusterz in John’s Pass, Madeira Beach, Fla., well above the 2009 official state average of $2.33.
“This storm sent all of our boats to the dock,” says boat owner and dock manager Greg Pruitt. “Normally when that happens, you get a price drop. That didn’t happen. We don’t have a fish in the house right now.”
OPINION: Scalloper calls Globe Editorial “both sensationalist and inaccurate.”
The National Marine Fisheries Service’s Scientific and Statistical Committee reported that 80 million pounds of scallops could be legally caught without exceeding the overfishing limit, and that 65 million pounds of caught scallops was both sustainable and precautionary with only a 25 percent chance of the scallop biomass being overfished.
The scallop industry supported a proposed catch of 47 million pounds, 18 million pounds less than the conservative allowable catch that would keep the 2010 fishing days at sea the same as 2009.
When the scallop industry realized it was going to lose more fishing days without a reasonable explanation, it asked local, state, and federal representatives for support in persuading the council to revisit the issue. Governor Patrick asked the council chairman, John Pappalardo, to come to his office on a Sunday in order to understand the issue, and to ask Pappalardo to allow the council to reconsider its vote.
Sea Scallop Fact sheet from the NEFMC staff
This Sea Scallop Fact sheet was prepared by the NEFMC staff as part of the package of documents in preparation for the scallop reconsideration scheduled at the Council meeting in Portsmouth, NH. Read the sea scallop fact sheet here.
OPINION: Scalloper calls Globe Editorial “both sensationalist and inaccurate.”
Paul Weckesser, a New Bedford scallop boat owner, wrote the following in a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe.
"The National Marine Fisheries Service’s Scientific and Statistical Committee reported that 80 million pounds of scallops could be legally caught without exceeding the overfishing limit, and that 65 million pounds of caught scallops was both sustainable and precautionary with only a 25 percent chance of the scallop biomass being overfished. The scallop industry supported a proposed catch of 47 million pounds, 18 million pounds less than the conservative allowable catch that would keep the 2010 fishing days at sea the same as 2009."
"When the scallop industry realized it was going to lose more fishing days without a reasonable explanation, it asked local, state, and federal representatives for support in persuading the council to revisit the issue. Governor Patrick asked the council chairman, John Pappalardo, to come to his office on a Sunday in order to understand the issue, and to ask Pappalardo to allow the council to reconsider its vote."
Fishing ‘sectors’ OK’d, decried as industry’s ‘darkest hour’
Amendment 16, a controversial rewrite of the rules of commercial fishing in the Northeast, was approved Friday by NOAA's Fisheries Service and will take effect May 1.
"I've been dealing with fisheries for 25 years. This is, in my estimation, one of the darkest hours this industry has ever seen," said Gloucester fishing industry attorney Stephen Ouellette.
The amendment restructures much of the fishing industry into 17 new cooperatives called "sectors." Sectors will have the ability to decide for themselves how to develop rules for taking and allocating their allowed catch to the various members.
Robert Lane of Bourne, a former owner of two draggers out of New Bedford, said he quit the business after a brief experience in a sector in Maine.
The sector system, he said, "I think is going to collapse of its own weight with all the paperwork managing the thing," he said.
"The quotas force you into groups, and it's a huge amount of work trying to manage it that way," he said.
Pat Kurkel, the northeast regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, has been a defender of the amendment and the science behind it, saying that "the real issue is that we've just been unable to eliminate overfishing." The existing system should have been changed years ago, she told reporters at the rally.
Read the complete story at the Standard-Times [subscription]
NMFS Clarifies Requirements for Federal Atlantic Herring Fishery
NOAA Fisheries Service Clarifies the Notification and Reporting Requirements for Participants in the Federal Atlantic Herring Fishery
This letter clarifies the notification and reporting requirements for participants in the Federal Atlantic herring (herring) fishery. If a vessel harvests, possesses, or lands herring in or from the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on any fishing trip, it is considered to be participating in the Federal herring fishery. As you may know, some vessel owners and operators failed to comply with reporting requirements in previous years. These violations undermined the monitoring program established to assure that catch in the fishery does not exceed specified levels. Please share this information with all of your vessel operators….
Report: Fisheries penalties unfair
A nationwide review of how the nation’s fisheries are policed has found that Northeast fishermen were given double the fines of other regions, and it urges reforms to make the penalty process appear “less arbitrary and unfair.”
The report, released Thursday by the Commerce Department’s inspector general, followed persistent complaints by New England fishermen.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, came down hard Thursday on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for what she called “egregious mismanagement” of federal fishing law enforcement in the Northeast.
NOAA is supposed to enforce federal laws designed to conserve and manage the nation’s fisheries. Although the agency is known more for science than law enforcement, it oversees the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Office of Law Enforcement.
NMFS: Period 2 for Spiny Dogfish closes January 26
NOAA Fisheries Service Announces That Period 2 Of The 2009 Spiny Dogfish Fishery Will Close Effective 0001 Hours, January 26, 2010.
Northeast Groundfish Amendment 16 Approved
A revision of federal groundfishing rules known as Amendment 16 has been approved by NOAA’s Fisheries Service. The final regulations required to implement these measures are expected to be published in late April or early May.
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