May 1, 2012 — NOAA has announced the Federal size and possession limits for the Northeast multispecies recreational fisheries for fishing year 2012 (May 1, 2012 – April 30, 2013). All limits apply to both private and charter/party recreational vessels, unless otherwise noted. Also, please note the changes for Gulf of Maine cod and contact your local state fisheries office for information on current state regulations.
April 30, 2012 — Effective May 1, several trip limits will be changed for NE multispecies vessels fishing in the common pool fishery on a Category A DAS. These trip limit changes are as follows:
Georges Bank cod is 2,000 lb/DAS up to 20,000 lb/trip,
Gulf of Maine cod is 650 lb/DAS up to 2,000 lb/trip, and
Georges Bank yellowtail flounder is 500 lb/trip.
All remaining multispecies trip limits are unchanged from Fishing Year 2011 to 2012.
The Fishing Year 2012 revised trip limits apply to fishing trips that have crossed the VMS demarcation line after 0001 hours on May 1. Vessels that start a trip before May 1 and end the same trip in the month of May are subject to FY 11 trip limits.
Also effective May 1, the Eastern U.S/Canada Management Area is open to common pool vessels using trawl gear. For information on common pool trip limits or other questions, contact the Sustainable Fisheries Division at 978-281-9315.
April 27, 2012 – It has been more than five months since Gov. Deval Patrick, backed by Sen. John Kerry and the state's heavily Democratic congressional delegation, approached the Obama administration to get a federal fisheries disaster declaration.
Notwithstanding NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco's assurance to the Senate Commerce Committee in October that "we can turn it around quickly," the governor's Nov. 15 filing has gone unanswered, with no explanation from Commerce Secretary John Bryson — or from Patrick, who agreed in February to co-chair President Obama's re-election campaign.
The state's request for the administration to recognize that transformation of the groundfishery into a catch shares quota trading system has become a government-issue economic calamity reputedly backed by two scientific studies. The first concluded that most of the groundfishing business hadn't broken even in the first year of Amendment 16, which contains the catch share framework; the other was a case study showing hardship concentrated in the smallest of owner-operated fishing boat businesses, spread throughout secondary ports between Gloucester and New Bedford.
Since then, the economic condition and prospects of the Northeast groundfishery have only worsened, with a dire Gulf of Maine cod assessment bringing on an interim 22 percent cut in the total allowable catch for the 2012 fishing cycle that begins on Tuesday, and discouraging updates of past assessments assuring widespread constrictions next year in catch limits for groundfish stocks in Georges Bank.
Combined with dramatic cuts in the coming year in Georges Bank yellowtail — a core stock and potential impediment as bycatch to scalloping, New Bedford's golden egg-laying goose — and even deeper and wider cod cuts expected in 2013, the industry finds itself propelled by government policy and science onto an accelerating downward cycle.
Read the full story at the Gloucester Times.
April 26, 2012 — At the request of Northeast groundfish sector vessels, NOAA is proposing to implement an exempted fishery for trawl vessels that target skates for lobster bait, without having to use a groundfish fishing day at sea. This exemption would be allowed in a portion of southern New England waters, from July through October each year. This proposed measure will provide economic benefits to commercial fishermen without posing a risk to groundfish stocks because these vessels catch very little or no groundfish.
Read more about the proposed measures.
April 19, 2012 – NOAA Fisheries has announced that an area of the Gulf of Maine will be closed to gill-nets annually from October 1 through November 30 beginning in 2012 to reduce harbor porpoise deaths.
According to NOAA, "this closure is required because observed by-catch rates for harbor porpoises in this fishery have exceeded the trigger specified in the harbor porpoise conservation plan. The plan was developed by a Take Reduction Team, a group of fishermen, scientists, environmentalists and managers. Take Reduction Teams are required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act to reduce by-catch of marine mammals."
The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Historically, October and November are among the months with the highest harbor
porpoise by-catch rates in the Gulf of Maine. In 2011, 36 groundfish sector gill-net vessels made
721 fishing trips into this area during October and November. The economic impacts of this
closure area will depend on the extent to which fishermen are able to shift their effort to other
areas outside the closure area.
Owners and operators of permitted gill-net vessels were advised in a letter from NOAA
Fisheries last August that closures might be necessary because observed harbor porpoise
by-catch rates were high. Final analysis of the first year of fishing under this conservation plan
indicates that the observed by-catch rate for the Gulf of Maine was more than double the trigger
level, requiring the closure this fall to comply with the harbor porpoise conservation plan.
The Marine Mammal Protection Act was enacted on October 21, 1972. All marine
mammals are protected under this Act, which prohibits, with certain exceptions, the "take" of
marine mammals in U.S. waters and by Americans on the high seas, and the importation of
marine mammals and marine mammal products into the United States.
A conference call and webinar lead by the Take Reduction Team has been scheduled
from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on Thurs., April 26. Interested members of the public are welcome to join
the call. During the call, an overview of the Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Plan and by-catch
analysis for the first complete fishing year under the new conservation management plan will be
presented. Please send an email to Marjorie.Mooney-Seus@noaa.gov for call-in information.
NOAA is also planning to convene a formal meeting of the Take Reduction Team this fall
to assess new harbor porpoise population information and additional by-catch data. This meeting
will be announced in the Federal Register and on the NOAA Fisheries Northeast Regional
Office website.
Read the permit holder letter (Fisheries Bulletin) for further details.
See the Northeast Fisheries Science Center harbor porpoise by-catch rate analysis.
Other information about the Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Team can be found here.
GLOUCESTER, Mass. — Apr. 16, 2012 — NOAA Fisheries Service announces that a voluntary vessel speed restriction zone (Dynamic Management Area – DMA) has been established in the vicinity east of Boston to protect an aggregation of 3 right whales sighted in this area on April 13, 2012. This DMA is in effect immediately through April 27, 2012. Mariners are requested to route around this area or transit through it at 10 knots or less.
East of Boston DMA — active through April 27, 2012
42 34N
41 55N
071 10W
070 16W
Mariners are requested to avoid or transit at 10 knots or less inside DMAs where persistent aggregations of right whales have been sighted.
View a map of the right whale dynamic management area.
April 13, 2012 – NOAA announced that effective 001 hours on April 17, the Trimester 1 Directed Longfin Squid Fishery will be closed. Projections indicate that the longfin squid fishery has reached 80 percent of the butterfish mortality cap.
Vessels issued Federal longfin squid permits may not fish for, catch, possess or land more than 2,500 lb of longfin beginning April 17, 2012, per trip or calendar day through the start of Trimester 2 on May 1, 2012.
Federally permitted dealers may not purchase more than 2,500 lb of longfin squid per vessel beginning at 0001 hours, April 17, 2012, per trip or calendar day until the start of Trimester 2 on May 1, 2012.
Read the full release from NOAA.
Deadline for Comments is June 4, 2012 NOAA Fisheries would like to invite "Public Comments" on Interim Management Measures that are to be in effect from May 1, 2012, until September 30, 2012 to manage Gulf of Maine cod. Comments must be received by June 4, 2012. To read the rule which contains these management measures click here. More information on Gulf of Maine cod can be found on our Gulf of Maine Cod News website.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 2, 2012 – NOAA Fisheries has released its decision on new management measures for Gulf of Maine Cod for 2012.
NOAA announced today that fishermen will be allowed to catch up to 6,700 metric tons of Gulf of Maine cod in 2012. This end result of collaborative work with the fishing industry to find a solution that prevented a much larger cut to the allowable catch for the 2012 fishing year.
In late 2011, a new stock assessment for Gulf of Maine cod found the stock declined unexpectedly, making major reductions in catch limits necessary for the 2012 fishing year, as required under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. NOAA and the New England Fishery Management Council, which includes state officials and fishermen, worked with the fishing industry to identify flexibility within federal fisheries law that could both protect cod and provide sustained fishing opportunities. As a result, the quota for 2012 will be set at 6,700 metric tons, which is within the range recommended by the New England Fishery Management Council. Without this collaborative approach, the catch limit for this fishing year would have been set below 1,500 metric tons.
"This extraordinary partnership among fishermen, members of the non-governmental organization community, federal regulators and scientists has provided us with some discretion to set higher catch limits in 2012 and a little more time for fishermen to plan and for all of us to work together to address the change in stock condition," said Sam Rauch, acting assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "We are committed to continued evaluation of the current cod status and to working with our partners to develop a long-term rebuilding program that includes setting catch limits in 2013 that end overfishing."
NOAA is granting commercial groundfish sectors (a group of fishing vessels that share an annual allocation) a carry-over of up to 10 percent of the 2011 allocation into the 2012 fishing year. The fishing industry requested this carry-over, which is part of the 6,700 metric ton catch limit. In addition, recreational fishermen who once had to discard cod smaller than 24 inches can now keep cod as small as 19 inches, decreasing the amount of fish discarded at sea. The daily bag limit will decrease from ten fish to nine.
NOAA will also conduct a new assessment of Gulf of Maine cod in 2012, in time to set fishing year 2013 catch limits. NOAA is exploring key science issues prioritized by the Council's scientific committee, including the appropriateness of currently defined stock boundaries (stock structure), survival rates of discarded fish, and use of new recreational survey data.
"We are looking for ways to work cooperatively with fishermen in the groundfish fleet to conduct this research and, in particular, to better estimate the long-term survival of discarded cod in commercial and recreational fisheries," said Richard Merrick, chief science advisor for NOAA's Fisheries Service. "Fishermen's on-the-water experience is invaluable, and we hope that closer ties with them will improve our science and our understanding. "
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute has agreed to coordinate a comprehensive look at stock structure, an effort that will involve a variety of partners to evaluate what is known about the number and distribution of various cod stocks. NOAA is also developing new methodology to incorporate new marine recreational fishing data into the cod stock assessment.
Download an MP3 of the NOAA press conference on the Gulf of Maine Cod announcement.
Public Comments Due April 18, 2012
NOAA Fisheries Service today announced proposed a catch limit, commercial quota, and trip limit for the spiny dogfish fishery for the 2012 fishing year. They invite Public Comments on these proposed measures.
Read the proposed measure from NOAA.