NOAA officials and industry leaders disagree on many areas relating to Amendment 16's May 1 shift to sector management, but one area where there is agreement is that it is too soon to assess the results of the shift.
In a May 11 report, Seafoodnews.com reported: “… in New England, the fleet is landing more fish” under sectors than they did in 2009 under the former days-at-sea system. Almost immediately, industry leaders balked at that assessment. (see SavingSeaFood – New England Auction Managers Question Reports of Positive First Week Under Catch Shares ).
Five days later, in a May 16 follow-up, Seafoodnews.com revisited its analysis showing showing that "landings across the region were up" noting "this week, that overall trend continues." The story concluded "based now on two weeks of data, it is fair to say that the new fishing rules in New England have not led to lower total landings of groundfish, and they have resulted in significant changes in the species being targeted. These are exactly the goals that the program designers had in mind." The article challenged "anyone who wants to check these figures…to obtain the New England weekly auction reports from NMFS for the comparable weeks in 2009 and 2010."
Saving Seafood accepted that challenge, looked at the numbers, and spoke with industry leaders and government officials to determine what can be learned from those reports. The answer turned out to be 'not much'.
by Jonathan Hemmerdinger
Saving Seafood contributor
It's too soon to judge how Northeast fishermen will be impacted by the sector management fishery plan implemented May 1, say members of the fishing community and government officials.
“It’s too early to really assess how things are going,” said Maggie Mooney-Seus, spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“It’s way too early to report” on sectors, said Larry Ciulla of the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction. There are a ton of factors to consider, he added.
Under the controversial sector plan, Northeast ground fish permit holders—fishermen who target species such as cod, haddock, pollock and flounder—can join fishing cooperatives called sectors and fish under agreed restrictions. Sector fishermen are guaranteed a portion of the total quota based on each member's historical catch.
Opponents of sector management say the plans give fishermen more flexibility on when to fish and can rebuild fish stocks. Opponents, mostly fishermen, have said they fear the plans will put them out of business.
Though just 20 days old, some reporters have evaluated the sector plan. In a May 11 report on Seafoodnews.com, John Sackton wrote “… in New England, the fleet is landing more fish” under sectors than they did in 2009 under the former days-at-sea system.
Sackton’s initially said his data, derived from fish auction reports, indicated landings were up 15 percent in New England in the first week of May, though later conceded a calculation error—landings were really up 4 percent, he said.
Despite that 11 point correction, Sackton still said, “Reports from boat owners and the auctions show some spectacular results,” noting that Carlos Rafael, one of the region’s largest groundfish permit holders, “landed the highest grossing groundfish trip ever in New Bedford. One of his vessels came in with a gross stock of over $179,000 for one trip.”
Too early to compare
But many fishing industry insiders say a fair comparison between the first two weeks of the 2010 season to the same period last year is impossible.
For one thing, a different number of boats fished this May than in May 2009 because of mandatory 20-day tie-ups, said Rafael. For instance, out of his 29 groundfish boats, only a few fished this May. (Rafael’s boats were also required to stay dockside for 20 days last year, but didn’t take the time off in May, he said.)
He said the result was low supply and higher prices, which he said explains his record trip. (Rafael also corrected Sackton—the trip grossed $169,000, not $179,000, he said)
“We have trips that size before, but never this [kind of] money. I got that money because of supply and demand,” he said.
Ciulla echoed Rafael. The data available in the first few weeks “has nothing to do with fishing,” he said. I comes down to whether the “boats are leaving the docks or not leaving the docks. If you don’t leave the dock, you are getting zero.”
And in an email to Saving Seafood, fish dealer Marc Agger said, “two weeks are meaningless … Gloucester and New Bedford were constrained on cod landings last May due to closures.”
Canastra pointed out another reason accurate comparisons between 2009 and 2010 are impossible: even though some boats aren’t fishing this May, he is now buying from more “vessels because of the sectors. My volume is up,” he wrote in an email.
The bottom line, he said in an interview: it’s not “apples to apples … there shouldn’t be any comparisons in the first two weeks … If I were to tell you things are great, I would by lying.”
Canastra added that an accurate comparison will be unavailable until total port landing data is available in a few months.
Other factors impact landings
Mooney-Seus at NOAA told Saving Seafood that the sector plan itself makes short-term comparisons inaccurate. Under the sector plan, she said, fishermen have the entire season to catch their quota—they can decide for themselves when to fish based on factors such as weather conditions and market prices. Some fishermen might also stay dockside until the new sector system is tested.
The bottom line, said Mooney-Seus, is that not all boats that can fish did fish in May. “A quick and dirty, off the cuff” estimate is that 13 percent fewer boats are fishing this May, she said.
But, she added, “everyone could go fishing in June.”
Because the sector plan is so new, Mooney-Seus said her agency has been staffed seven-days-a-week to field calls from concerned fishermen. (The number of calls was high over the first weekend, but has since tapered off, she said.)
In addition, NOAA holds weekly calls with sectors managers and has agents at fishing ports to discuss the new system with fishermen. NOAA will also hold meetings with fishermen in fishing ports starting in June, Mooney-Seus said, after all boats have been fishing under the new system.
To date, NOAA has received mixed reaction from fishermen. Some are concerned about reporting requirements, she said. Others, she said, have had positive results using new fishing gear and different bait aimed at reducing the harvest of “vulnerable species.”