WOODS HOLE – September 21, 2011 – The following was released by NOAA.
This report provides an evaluation of the economic and social performance of active limited access Northeast groundfish vessels for the 2010 fishing year (May 2010 through April 2011) and updates results contained in the Interim Report for Fishing Year 2010 on the Performance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery (May 2010 – January 2011)[1]. The analyses (Table 1) revealed some notable changes in the fishery between 2007 and 2010; some of these are recent, while others reflect ongoing trends.
Three clear changes were evident in 2010 compared with the 2007, 2008 and 2009 fishing years. Combined yearly average prices for all species were higher in 2010 than any other year in the time series. Even though groundfish gross revenues continued to decline in 2010, higher prices resulted in 2010 gross revenues from all species landed being higher than in 2008 or 2009, and nearly equal to 2007. Economic performance, as indicated by gross revenue per unit effort, improved in 2010.
Other performance measures indicated the continuation of existing trends into 2010.
Some of these trends are downward. Since 2008, landings of both groundfish and non-groundfish species have declined by about 14%. Several measures of fishing activity and effort also continued to decline in 2010: there were 17% fewer active vessels in 2010 than in 2007, 48% fewer groundfish trips, 33% fewer days absent on groundfish trips, and fewer crew positions, days, and trips.
Other indicators showed increasing trends. The number of non-groundfish trips increased somewhat (2%) between 2007 and 2010. There has also been an increasing concentration of groundfish gross revenues among top earning vessels, as gross revenues have become consolidated on fewer vessels. About 68% of gross revenues from groundfish sales during 2007-2009 resulted from landings by 20% of active groundfish vessels. In 2010, 20% of vessels accounted for about 80% of the gross revenues from groundfish sales.
Limited access Common Pool and Sector performance was compared using some of the performance indicators. However, this comparison is not useful for evaluating the relative performance of DAS and Sector-based management because of fundamental differences between these groups of vessels which were not accounted for in the analyses. All measures of gross revenue per trip and per day absent in 2010 were higher for the average Sector vessel and lower for the average Common Pool vessel. In addition, many, but not all, of the overall averages for 2010 are higher than those in 2007-2009.
The evaluation conducted did not examine: (a) the costs associated with joining a sector; (b) vessel operating costs; (c) the effects of annual catch entitlements trading; and (d) changes in ownership patterns. An expanded version of this report scheduled to be released in the Fall of 2011 will include analyses of these factors.
View the complete document released by NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center