The following compilation of statistics regarding the anticipated percentage of the fishing fleet currently signed up for sectors versus those in the common pool was produced by the Environmental Defense Fund based on statements of National Fisheries Management Service Regional Administrator Pat Kurkul at the September New England Council meeting and confirmed with Doug Christel at NOAA.
National Fisheries Management Service Regional Administrator Pat Kurkul reported the following at the New England Fishery Management Council meeting regarding the number of fishing boats and permits and the percentage of the 2010 groundfish harvest signed up for "sector" catch share management as of the September 1, 2009 deadline:
Seventeen sector plans covering 723 fishing vessels were received by NMFS by Sept 1.
These vessels represent 90% of the total allocation of the annual groundfish harvest including:
* 95% of George’s Bank cod
* 96% of pollock
* 93% of Gulf of Maine cod
These 723 fishing vessels in sectors also represented 82% of the days-at-sea permits, leaving 18 percent of days-at-sea permits in the common pool to fish under days-at-sea and trip limits instead of under quota-based management.
What this means: as of now, 90% of the groundfish harvest in 2010 is slated to be caught under sectors, with 10 percent caught under current days-at-sea regulations by boats in the "common pool." Fishermen are allowed to opt out of sectors before the fishing season starts May 1st.
The discrepancy between percent of harvest apportioned to sectors and percent of days-at-sea permits signed up for sectors is due to the fact that sector allocations are based on catch history–and some days-at-sea permits have no associated catch history.
Another number to note is that 723 vessels have signed up for sectors–in recent years, only about 600 boats have been fishing for groundfish, so this represents an increase of about 20% in boats potentially involved in this fishery next year.