Management & Regulation

Recreational fishing interests have registered their intense opposition to "catch shares" — the high-priority regulatory policy sought by the Obama administration to commodify and limit access to fisheries in an effort to align investment with conservation interests and reduce competition among individual fishing boats.

The objections — from two umbrella organizations, the New Jersey-based Recreational Fishing Alliance and the Texas-based Coastal Conservation Association — were filed over the summer with the president and with a task force closely tied to the White House that was appointed to assist Jane Lubchenco, the catch-share advocate who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in facilitating the transition.

There are no catch share programs in recreational fisheries today, but the recreational organizations see them on the horizon.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The deputy director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Councilor David Pierce, said he’d support the reduction in the acceptable biological catch level by the 40 percent that the cut to 90,000 metric tons represents if the Science and Statistical Committee had been able to site a decline in spawning stock.

‘But it’s a level line, no overfishing, not overfished,’ said Pierce. ‘Why didn’t you consider a smaller buffer?

‘The SSC was focused on uncertainty,’ Sullivan said. ‘We don’t know what’s changing; we don’t know where this is going.’

‘This is extremely precautionary,’ said Pierce. ‘Too much so. This won’t destroy, but it will certainly devastate the herring industry. I’d like to have an industry standing when we get a new benchmark.’ SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton – Sept. 28, 2009 – Herring has become quite controversial in New England due to a fight between inshore vessels and larger offshore pair trawlers. But stocks have generally been healthy.

David Ellenton, president of a large herring fishing and processing business in Gloucester, told the Gloucester Times the conservative catch limit would effectively reduce landings by 50 percent and ‘have a disastrous effect on the fishery.’

However, in 2008, total landings were around 90,000 tons for the U.S. and Canada, and the U.S. share was 74,000 tons. Reductions in landings are more likely to be due to time and area closures rather than the size of the total TAC, which will likely not be fully caught in 2009.

The Science and Statistical Committee reported that while the ocean herring stock is not subject to overfishing and has not been overfished, a troubling and inexplicable statistical data trend suggests caution.

The statistical problem, known as a ‘retrospective pattern,’ is that as more recent numbers are fed into a mathematical model for the fishery the trend is in the wrong direction. In other words catch and landing data are not supporting continuation of current fishing levels.

The problem is that the assessment is not based on actual new stock survey, but on the fact that current landings data suggests there is uncertainty about the direction herring stocks are taking.

When Dr. Patrick Sullivan from the SSC presented the findings to the council, he evoked the collapse of the Canadian cod fishery. Prior to that collapse ‘retrospective’ data had begun indicating a problem that had not yet showed up in other measurements.

After an extensive debate, the council voted 8-7 to ask the committee to reconsider its determination of the level of the allowable biological catch, but there was little expectation that the panel would change its mind or have a basis for doing so.

Stock biomass increased steadily from 116,000 metric tons in 1982 to almost 830,000 metric tons in 1997, then fluctuated without a trend since then and was estimated to be 652,000 metric tons in 2008, according to the status report of the Transboundary Resource Assessment Committee, a joint U.S.-Canadian scientific panel that advises both nations on the fishery on either side of the border through Georges Bank.

Combined landings increased from 106,000 metric tons in 2005 to 116,000 metric tons in 2006, then declined to 90,000 metric tons in 2008. US catches were about 74,000 tons in 2008.

The deputy director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Councilor David Pierce, said he’d support the reduction in the acceptable biological catch level by the 40 percent that the cut to 90,000 metric tons represents if the Science and Statistical Committee had been able to site a decline in spawning stock.

‘But it’s a level line, no overfishing, not overfished,’ said Pierce. ‘Why didn’t you consider a smaller buffer?

‘The SSC was focused on uncertainty,’ Sullivan said. ‘We don’t know what’s changing; we don’t know where this is going.’

‘This is extremely precautionary,’ said Pierce. ‘Too much so. This won’t destroy, but it will certainly devastate the herring industry. I’d like to have an industry standing when we get a new benchmark.’

Jeff Kalen, who represents fishing interests in Cape May, N.J., objected to the dramatic decline in herring landings resulting from the Science and Scientific Committee’s adjustment in catch limits.

‘Forty percent is grabbing at straws,’ Kalen said. ‘I don’t want to go on about the serious impacts. How shocked are we? We lost 90,000 (of TAC, not landings) tons in a couple of afternoons.’

This story is provided by Seafood.com

Changes in the federal sea scallop rules governing the hundreds of general category scallopers have infuriated Wally Gray, who often fishes out of Gloucester on his 44-foot Foxy Lady II.

The Stonington, Maine, scallop fisherman said those changes will probably force him to do what he did years ago out of New Bedford.

"I’m 50. I’ve been on a boat since age 3. My parents couldn’t afford a baby sitter, so my father used to take me out lobstering. I started scalloping on small boats. Scallops were $1.20 to $1.40 a pound then. I moved off of the island (Stonington) when I was 19," said Gray, who crewed on or skippered big New Bedford scallopers from 1978 to 1994 before buying his own old wooden Novi-style boat in 1995.

He purchased the 20-year-old fiberglass Foxy Lady II in 2004 and has remained in the general category scallop fleet, which was allowed to fish days and bring home up to 400 pounds of shucked scallop meats each trip. Gray, like many of his general category peers, often led a nomadic life.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

A dramatic cut in the allowable catch of the ocean herring — a healthy stock on which more favored species feed and the lobster industry depends for bait — was announced this week.

All but certain for at least three years, the cutback plan by a scientific panel at the three-day meeting of the New England Fishery Management Council in Plymouth is wholly precautionary, and was controversial.

The panel announced an acceptable biological catch of 90,000 metric tons, down from 145,000 metric tons. David Ellenton, president of a large herring fishing and processing business in Gloucester, predicted the conservative catch limit would effectively reduce landings by 50 percent and "have a disastrous effect on the fishery."

Representing Cape Seafoods and the Western Fishing Co., Ellenton said the industry employs or serves 12,000 people, including lobster boat operators that prefer herring as trap bait.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.

The following release was issued by the New England Fishery Management Council: Newburyport, MA – After working out the details of management rules in Plymouth, MA this week, members of the New England Fishery Management Council approved further development of Amendment 15 to the Scallop Fishery Management Plan.

The amendment is intended to address the new requirements of the reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Act — that fishery management plans must use annual catch limits to prevent overfishing and include measures to ensure accountability. Additionally, the action will address excess harvesting capacity in the largest segment of the scallop fleet while providing vessels with more flexibility to efficiently harvest the resource.

Other changes under consideration could adjust the overfishing definition to be more compatible with the area rotation system used to manage the fishery, modifications to the general category fleet management program and a change to the start date of the fishing year. Amendment 15 also contains alternatives that would make the scallop and groundfish essential fish habitat closed areas consistent with each other.

The Council indicated it preferences for very of the few alternatives, but did opt to support a Scallop Committee recommendation that identified both the stacking and leasing of permits as its preferred measures to address the excess capacity and efficiency issues.

While no revisions have yet been made to reflect the changes made yesterday to the Amendment 15 alternatives, the document discussed at the meeting is available at http://www.nefmc.org/scallops/index.html. It is listed as Document 2 under the September 22-24 meeting materials. The Council plans to hold public hearings following completion of Amendment 15 and its draft Environmental Impact Statement. The timetable is early 2010.

Not much was clear after an all-day meeting and vote by the New England Fishery Management Council on changes to the impending new regulatory regime on commercial fishing.

And that does makes one thing abundantly clear: That new regime, due to take effect next May, should be delayed for at least a year.

It is a disaster in the making. It is poorly planned, not credible (since it is based on bogus statistics), chaotic and confusing.

The survival of the fishery is not at stake either. The current regulatory structure, which limits the number of days fishermen can spend fishing, has already resulted in improved populations of most species. One more year will surely not reverse that trend.

Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.