Fishing permits Archives - Saving Seafood

Mid-Atlantic For-Hire Vessel Permitting and Reporting

September 18, 2017 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:

The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has received questions about for-hire (party/charter) vessel permitting and reporting requirements. For-hire vessels need permits from the NMFS Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office if they fish for/retain the following Mid-Atlantic Council-managed species in these federal waters areas:

Species
Area (federal waters, i.e. beyond 3 nautical miles)

Summer Flounder
North Carolina/South Carolina Border and North

Scup*
North of Cape Hatteras, NC

Black Sea Bass*
North of Cape Hatteras, NC

Atlantic Mackerel
Atlantic Coast

Longfin or Illex Squid
Atlantic Coast

Atlantic Butterfish
Atlantic Coast

Bluefish
Atlantic Coast

Tilefish*
Virginia/North Carolina Border and North

*Scup and black sea bass south of Cape Hatteras, NC and tilefish south of Virginia require a for-hire snapper grouper permit issued by the NMFS SE Regional Office

Once you have one or more of these permits, it doesn’t matter where you fish or what you’re fishing for – you must submit Vessel Trip Reports (VTRs) for ALL fishing-related trips on that vessel, including reporting ALL fish kept or discarded (not just fish you have permits for). VTRs can currently be submitted either with paper forms or by electronic VTR applications/software. However, beginning March 12, 2018, all for-hire VTRs (not commercial) for permits associated with the Mid-Atlantic Council will need to be submitted electronically within 48 hours of ending each trip (reporting all trips and all fish). For more information about VTR reporting call NMFS at 978-281-9246 or visit this page on the GARFO website.

Species encountered off the Mid-Atlantic that require other for-hire federal permits to fish for/retain include, but may not be limited to, New England groundfish, tunas, billfish, sharks, king mackerel, Spanish mackerel, cobia, dolphin, wahoo, and snapper/groupers. Some of these species may have associated reporting requirements now or in the near future. It is the responsibility of the vessel owner or operator to know what permits and reporting are required based on the vessel’s location and species targeted. Please consult your state agency and the following federal agencies about other necessary permits and reporting requirements:

It’s Not Okay To Sell Tuna Under The Radar Or Without A Permit

August 24, 2017 — The following is excerpted from an article published Tuesday by Fissues.org, a project of the Marine Fish Conservation Network:

As we get into the thick of tuna season right now, and plenty of “large-medium” and “giant” class bluefin tuna are being caught by anglers around Cape Cod, and “small mediums” as well as good-sized yellowfin in the New York Bight, I thought it more than appropriate to say this…

It’s not okay….

It’s not okay for an angler to take his or her bluefin, or yellowfin, or bigeye or any fish for that matter and sell it to the local restaurant through the back door… for freak’n gas money. Unfortunately, this kinda thing happens pretty regularly up here. Don’t tell me that it doesn’t, because I hear the bragging frequently.

And don’t tell me that it’s a victimless crime. The hard-working full-time commercial fishermen are the first to get screwed. But it’s the consumer as well, who ends up eating a fish that hasn’t been properly cared for without knowing the risks (in the case of tuna, it needs to be flash frozen so as to get rid of parasites). And the fish? Well, none of that backdoor stuff gets reported so we have no idea the scale of such removals… And that affects how these fish are managed and ultimately the long-term sustainability of the stock.

Let’s be crystal clear about one thing. You cannot legally sell tuna to anyone but a federally permitted HMS (Highly Migratory Species) dealer and you aren’t supposed to do so without the proper federal permits and state landing permits.

Under no circumstances are those backdoor sales legal.

But really, that’s not the main reason I felt compelled to write this.

What’s starting to become a big problem is the HMS “Charter/Headboat” permit, which inexplicably allows anyone with such permit running a charter to sell their bluefin, as long as they are of commercial size (73”-plus).

So here’s the deal… If I understand the intent of the permit correctly – and I’ve discussed with NOAA HMS, so I think I do – you can’t run both a commercial and charter fishing trip at the same time. Directly from HMS Permit FAQs site: “This permit allows a vessel to fish both commercially for tunas and recreationally for HMS, although not on the same day.”

Read the full story at Fissues.org

Alaskans own dwindling number of Alaska fishing permits

January 15, 2016 — Fishing issues will take a back seat to budget cutting when the Alaska Legislature convenes Jan. 19, but two early fish bills (and one holdover) are getting attention already.

One new measure aims to stop the migration of commercial fishing permits out of Alaska.

Forty years ago at Bristol Bay, 36 percent of the more than nearly 2,000 permits were held by locals and 64 percent by nonresidents. By 2013, the numbers were 19 percent local and 81 percent nonresident. Similar trends, by varying degrees, are happening in other regions as well.

Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, D-Sitka, said he intends to introduce a bill that would establish a permit bank to reverse the outmigration trend.

The bank would buy nonresident permits and lease them to young fishermen who otherwise could not afford them. It would offer several types of fishing permits (Alaska has 65) that would be proportional and reflective of regional fisheries. A permit bank would not cost the state any money, he said, because it would fall to local communities to raise the money.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News

NEFMC Declares Amendment 18 Flawed Then Votes It In

November 4, 2015 — PLYMOUTH, Mass. —“The core message, across the board, is—we don’t want this fishery owned and controlled by a small group of people.”

That was the consensus, as expressed by Brett Tolley, of the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, delivered to the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) during their latest deliberations on Amendment 18 to the groundfish management plan.

Tolley continued, “That’s no good for communities or the fish or the seafood system. And right now, at the end of this process, we’re debating whether seven or five entities should control this fishery….So there’s something fundamentally flawed with this public process.”

In late September, NEFMC was considering measures that would impose limits on the amount of fishery permits and/or Potential Sector Contribution (PSC) that individuals or groups may hold, as well as other measures that might promote fleet diversity or enhance sector management.

But fishermen and others at the meeting said Amendment 18 failed to achieve the goals outlined by NEFMC.

“It feels like we’re making things up on the fly,” said NEFMC member John Pappalardo. “The document here doesn’t answer a lot of questions that have come up today. I’m still toying with the idea of making a motion to scuttle this whole thing and send it back for further development….There’s a sense that folks just want to get this over with, but I’m not sure that’s the best course of action right now.”

Ed Barrett, a commercial fisherman from Marshfield, Mass., said he predicted, during the development of Amendment 16, that sector management would never work.

“We’re here in Amendment 18, pretty far down the road in a process that’s included years of scoping and committee meetings, and we have an amendment that’s not going to fix a thing,” Barrett said. “Right now, all we’re arguing over is the minutiae of a bad business model. This has been a waste of taxpayer money. It has failed me as a business owner, it’s failed my family’s business, it’s failed my fishing community. We need to stop this amendment right here. We need to go forward with something that will fix the problems that are killing the industry right now.”

“Give us the names of the five or seven guys who are going to own this fishery,” said Sandwich, Mass., fisherman William Chaprales. “We’re going too fast. Slow down. Let’s shelve this.”

Chaprales referred to the report produced by consulting firm Compass Lexecon (CL), which was charged in 2013 by NEFMC to determine if excessive market share currently exists in the groundfishery and to recommend potential constraints that could prevent excessive shares in the future. CL concluded there was no evidence of excessive market share and recommended accumulation limits in the 15.5 to 25 percent range on stock-specific potential sector contributions, and said lesser controls could reduce efficiency unnecessarily. PSC is an individual fisherman’s historical share of landings of groundfish species.

Read the full story at Fishermen’s Voice

2,000 lb Possession Limit in Effect October 22 for Midwater Trawl Vessels in the GB Haddock AM Area

October 19, 2015 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Herring Possession Limit Reduced to 2,000 lb in the Georges Bank Haddock Accountability Management Area in Effect October 22 for Midwater Trawl Vessels

The Atlantic Herring Georges Bank Incidental Haddock Catch Cap for the 2015 fishing year has been harvested.

As a result, herring midwater trawl vessels will be prohibited from fishing for or landing more than 2,000 lb of herring per trip or calendar day in or from the Herring Georges Bank Haddock Accountability Measure Area effective October 22. This limit will remain in place until the quota becomes available for the 2016 fishing year (expected on May 1, 2016).

This action effectively limits the midwater trawl fishery in Herring Management Area 3 to 2,000 lb of herring per trip/day until May 1, 2016, because Area 3 falls within the Georges Bank Haddock Accountability Management Area.

Herring vessels issued an All Areas or Areas 2/3 Limited Access Herring Permit may land haddock from the Herring Georges Bank Haddock Accountability Measure Area provided they have a Northeast Multispecies permit and are on a declared Northeast Multispecies day-at-sea.

For more information, please read the Federal Register notice and the permit holder bulletin.

Questions? Contact Shannah Jaburek, Regional Office, at 978-282-8456 or shannah.jaburek@noaa.gov.

Atlantic herring. Credit: NOAA