NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (Standard-Times) May 23, 2012 – NOAA officials took a blast of criticism for their scientific methods, including the slowness of processing and the use of the new research vessel, the Bigelow, to estimate biomass in the fishery.
Seafood auction owner Richie Canastra cast doubts on the Bigelow’s dire findings, saying about the yellowtail, “If they weren’t out there we wouldn’t be catching them.” Bigelow’s assessments, Canastra argued, might very likely be the result of using inappropriate fishing gear that makes it almost impossible to catch yellowtail.
Under questioning later from New England Fisheries Management Council member Laura Foley Ramsden of Foley Fish, NOAA scientist Russ Brown conceded that the fishing gear is a compromise designed to target many species of fish, confirming suspicions in the room.
Yellowtail are not subjected to a targeted survey; few species are other than scallops and shrimp. There simply isn’t the time or money, Brown explained.
That didn’t sit well with some such as former city Mayor Scott Lang, who told The Standard-Times that the government is being “deliberately incompetent.”
Fishing interests pleaded with the panel to speed up the scallop fishing data so some decisions can be made about transferring yellowtail quota in time to avert disaster. When they were met with reluctance from the panelists, including Samuel Rauch, acting assistant administrator for U.S. fisheries, they got an earful from Vito Calamo of Sen. Scott Brown’s office, who told them, “Nobody in America says they can’t do it and succeeds.”
Quota transfer away from the scallopers looks possible because for the past two years the fleet has been participating in a real-time yellowtail mapping experiment along with the UMass School of Marine Science and Technology. In it, boats report yellowtail hot spots and a daily map is prepared as a grid on Georges Bank.
Fishermen then avoid the hot spots.
The result: Only 31 percent of the yellowtail quota was used by the scallop fleet last year.
Since scallopers have shown they can avoid yellowtail, that system would cut down on bureaucracy among scallopers.
In an ironic twist, the overfishing that has been blamed for the decline of many species is admittedly not the cause of the yellowtail’s decline, said Rauch, because reducing fishing on them hasn’t worked. Any emergency changes would be needed just to survive this period while answers are found.
Several participants suggested that a rise in ocean temperatures on Georges Bank may be the cause. Canastra read aloud from a letter by fishing captain Mark Phillips, spelling out a dozen reasons why the yellowtail’s decline is happening, along with notes on their behavior that may be thwarting an accurate assessment.
Among his observations: “Until this spring, yellowtails have been starving to death. … This tells us that the environmental conditions will not support a larger population, but may be improving.”
The groundfish committee of the New England Fishery Management Council meets next week, the panel said, and will probably address emergency measures to rescue the groundfishing season.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times.