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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 2
October 2006
General category scallopers gain Great South Channel exemption
GLOUCESTER, MA – General category scallopers are back to fishing in the Great South Channel. At the tail end of August, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) authorized a brand new exemption area that made the fishery possible.
To fish in the Great South Channel Scallop Dredge Exemption Area, participating vessels must:
• Possess a valid general category 1A permit to land up to 40 pounds of scallop meats;
• Possess a valid general category 1B permit plus carry a vessel monitoring system to land between 40 and 400 pounds of scallop meats;
• Use small dredges with a combined width not greater than 10.5'; and
• Not fish for, possess, or land any other species besides scallops.
Limited-access vessels not working under a day-at-sea may also fish in the exemption area but have to follow the general category 1B rules.
The addition of the Great South Channel means general category scallopers now have a continuous swath of nearshore area to work in that covers: the Gulf of Maine Scallop Dredge Exemption Area; the new channel area; the Southern New England Scallop Dredge Exemption Area; and the Mid-Atlantic Exemption Area.
Slight modification
General category scallopers primarily from Cape Cod and Maine petitioned NMFS back in October 2005 to add the Great South Channel to the list of exempted fisheries after they discovered that the area – even though sandwiched between the Gulf of Maine and Southern New England exemption areas – was off limits to general category scalloping.
NMFS reviewed available data and determined that bycatch rates of regulated groundfish species totaled less than 5% of the catch “in a discrete area” around the channel and issued a proposed rule on July 6.
However, several groups asked NMFS to modify the proposed boundaries to exempt a slightly larger area with traditionally important scallop grounds.
After reviewing more data, NMFS agreed.
Yellowtail protection
In order to ensure that yellowtail flounder stocks are adequately protected during peak spawning periods, NMFS implemented the following two closures within the Great South Channel:
• April 1-June 30 for the portion of the exemption area that lies within statistical areas 526 and 525 to protect Southern New England and Georges Bank yellowtail; and
• June 1-30 for the portion of the exemption area that lies within statistical area 521 to protect Cape Cod/Gulf of Maine yellowtail.
For more information contact NMFS at (978) 281-9315 or visit the Northeast Regional Office web site at <www.nero.noaa.gov>. /cfn/
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