In a letter dated Sept. 1, NOAA Fisheries Service announced that the 2009 Open Area Observer Days-at-Sea (DAS) Set-aside has been fully utilized. Therefore, for any Open Area scallop trip departing after 0001 hours, September 9, 2009 on which NOAA randomly mandates that an observer must on board, NMFA has informed vessels that they must bear the cost of that observer without compensation. This cost is in addition to making continuing contributions to the set-aside programs. In response to numerous inquiries regarding this situation, controlling regulations, and government policy, Saving Seafood contributing writer John Lee files this story.
The Scallop Oversight Committee of the New England Fisheries Management Council has added the agenda item “Report on recent issues with industry funded observer program and discuss possible improvements” to the Committee’s Wednesday, September 16 meeting at 3 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Warwick, RI. The meeting is public.
by John Lee
NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (Sept 15, 2009) – Most of the noise that the scallop fishery makes is vessel made—the sound of wire coming tight on the winches as the heavy dredges come up and over the boat’s rails, followed by the sound of falling shells as the dredge spills the scallops onto deck. If the haul is good —and many are– these sounds become the sounds of money. Because of this, most scallopers don’t envy the money-tight groundfish fleet, the boats that harvest species like cod, haddock, and yellowtail flounder. The noise that the groundfish fleet makes isn’t vessel made. It’s a clamor about mismanagement.
Yet the scallopers–because they have an industry–are worried that they may lose it. Lose it to the mismanagement of a now-healthy resource, which scallopers have helped to create by giving a percentage of their catch to research and an observer program.
“We’ve donated a lot of money toward research,” said Herman Bruce a 70-year-old veteran of the New Bedford scallop industry, and the owner of the scalloper Zibet. “Every scalloper out there has. Things are OK for us—but now these added costs. I don’t think it’s fair.”
Boat owners argue that in fisheries management what starts off as a trickle can end in a mudslide. The latest letter from Patricia Kurkul, Northeast Regional Administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) raises some questions that scallopers want answered. Why can’t the government cover the remaining costs of the 2009 observer program? Since the resource is healthy and the TAC has not been reached, why can additional days at sea not be added via an emergency amendment to the regulations? Why isn’t NMFS accountable for their mistake?
When asked these questions, NMFS spokeswoman Maggie Mooney-Seus replied, “We are evaluating the Access Area and open area DAS fisheries to determine what factors contributed to the rapid utilization of the observer set-asides. We expect to report our findings to the Council, which may address this issue in its development of Framework 21 to the Scallop FMP”
“They got their numbers wrong,” said Herman Bruce, “And now, if you get picked to have an observer onboard, then you’re going to pay for it because the set-aside money has dried up. And the amount you’re going to pay for the observer isn’t insignificant– $10,000 – $11,000 possible, for a single fishing trip.”
Deirdre Boelke, scallop coordinator for the New England Fishery Management Council, said: “The Scallop Fishery Management Plan has two set-aside programs; one that funds scallop related research and one that helps defray the cost of carrying an observer. Each year a portion of the total scallop catch in both open and access areas is set aside before allocations are made to the fishery. The research set-aside program began in 1999 and has funded many research projects that have been used directly in the management process to improve our understanding of the scallop resource, the fishery, and overall impacts of scallop fishing on the ecosystem.”
When a Scallop boat departs the dock for a trip (5-15 days), it either heads out to the open bottom or an access area. They have to call in ahead of time to tell the agency what kind of trip they are about to leave on. These access areas are materially nothing more than lines drawn on a nautical chart. Yet these lines, invisible to the eye when looking out onto the sea, are hugely important to the scallop resource. There are three access areas off Cape Cod. The names are not romantic—Area I, Area II, and the Nantucket Lightship. Down off the Mid-Atlantic there are the Elephant trunk access area, Delmarva and the Hudson Canyon. Each scallop boat—roughly 350 permits—gets an allotted number of trips each year into these areas. This year it was five. Every year one or two of the access areas are closed to all scalloping. This gives the scallops within them a chance to grow and spawn without being harvested. Scallopers don’t mind the rotational management of these areas—they do however want more access into the areas off Cape Cod. These areas are huge, bigger than Rhode Island, and most of the area is closed to all fishing, including scalloping. The scallop boats are given “access” to a small sliver within the closed areas. What this means is that there are scallop beds within these areas that have not been harvested in 10 years. Scallopers talk of wanting more access, to them it makes perfect sense—“Let us get in there and harvest them before huge numbers of them die off because of old age.”
These access area trips are managed by a trip limit of 18,000 pounds. So they get to catch 18,000 pounds five times per year. Open area trips, however, are managed by days-at-sea (DAS). This year it was 37 days of fishing time. Open areas are simply any bottom that is not within an access area. So a scallop boat can tow its dredge right up to the line of an access area but not in it. The bulk of the scallop bottom is from the Mid-Atlantic up to Georges Bank.
A scallop boat makes money from both of these areas— it makes money and then contributes money to the set-aside programs. This means that the scallop fleet funds the observer program through the sale of scallops. This is unique; in all other New England fisheries the observers are funded by the government.
Of this overall scallop allocation Boelke said, “Two percent of scallop catch from access areas and open areas are set-aside each year and awarded to a handful of projects that apply in a competitive grants process. One percent of scallop catch is also set-aside to help defray the cost of carrying an observer. If a limited access scallop vessel is required to carry an observer on a fishing trip (about 5-10% of scallop trips are generally observed) a vessel is compensated for carrying that observer with additional allocation from access areas or additional open area DAS. For example, in 2009 about 250 DAS were set aside for research and 125 for the observer set-aside program. In addition, about 560,000 pounds of scallop meat was set-aside for research from access areas and 280,000 pounds was set-aside for the observer program,” wrote Boelke
Therefore to help shoulder the costs of observers the boats that get picked are given compensation, and most scallopers agree that when the compensation system works then there are no problems. For compensation each boat gets either extra weight (access area) or extra time (open areas).
“In recent years almost 100 percent of all research set-aside has been award to fund scallop related research projects in the region. Similarly, the scallop set-aside for the observer program has been sufficient to cover compensation on observed scallop trips,” said Boelke. “However, the agency has recently notified the industry that the observer set-asides for two access areas (Elephant Trunk and Delmarva access areas in the Mid-Atlantic) as well as open areas have been exhausted.”
There is still six months to go in the scallop season, which ends Feb. 28 2010, and 40-50 percent of the scallop vessels still have trips left to go.
“Therefore, between now and the end of February if a scallop vessel is required to carry an observer in either Mid-Atlantic access area or on an open area trip there is no set-aside left to compensate the vessel, thus the cost of carrying the observer is the responsibility of the vessel, which is about $750 – $1,000 a day including the cost of food etc,” said Boelke.
Another New Bedford scallop captain, Eddie Welch, owner and operator of the Westport, said, “The whole playing field got messed up this year. And now the NMFS needs to rework how this observer program is going to work. There are too many loopholes in it right now. You fish differently when you get picked and a lot of guys wanted to get picked—because they could make money in these loopholes.”
“Regardless of what has happened with the loopholes, the National Marine Fisheries Service could see it happening and they have full regulatory authority to change it—and they didn’t,” said Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney who represents the Fishermen Survival Fund. “It’s all about mismanagement, a communication gap within the NMFS, and now there’s no accountability to what happened. It’s a total lack of leadership. This was totally avoidable yet it happened three times this year.”
On September 16 in Warwick Rhode Island the agency will report to the scallop Committee telling them why the observer set-aside money ran out so quickly. The event is public. “I can’t wait to hear what they say,” said Herman Bruce.
John Lee is a freelance journalist, a fisherman out of Point Judith, Rhode Island, and a contributing writer to Saving Seafood. He may be contacted at john@savingseafood.org.
See also: "2009 Open Area Days-at-Sea Set Aside Has Been Fully Utilized" and the notice from NMFS