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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 2
October 2006
RI council considers fluke, monkfish rules
WAKEFIELD, RI – In anticipation of the 2007 summer flounder season and following an increase in fluke fishery effort, the Rhode Island Marine Fisheries Council at its Sept. 11 meeting considered several possible management methods for the fishery, but decided not to act until the federal announcement of next year’s coastwide fluke quota.
Dave Preble, council member and summer flounder advisory panel head, reported on an August advisory panel meeting during which industry members were asked for their ideas on possible management strategies for the fluke fishery.
Their suggestions, which Preble related to the council, included: time-area-gear closures; an aggregate landing program; a combined Summer I and Summer II season; equal division of quota across all four seasons; adoption of minimum hook sizes; establishment of control dates with proof of landings; equal division of quota over 12 months; quota allocations by gear type; and implementation of enforcement measures.
Panel members also suggested collection and review of landing data by gear type.
“With very severe cuts for total allowable catch likely, it seems to me like it’s a good time to review the fishery,” said Preble, who also was recently appointed to the New England Fishery Management Council. “I want to see radical change.”
The initiative follows a year filled with increased summer flounder effort across gear types and commercial and recreational sectors.
While the National Marine Fisheries Service is not likely to set the 2007 coastwide quota until late this year or early next year, the Rhode Island council believed that early and ongoing consideration of fishery management strategy for summer flounder was wise.
“We need to think of creative ways of controlling our effort,” said Ken Ketcham, council member.
The council eliminated minimum hook size management from further consideration, and Preble said that time-area-gear closures and enforcement measures, such as heavier fines and permit revocation, could be applied to the fishery.
The advisory panel will meet next on Oct. 3 to further discuss these possible management strategies.
How panels work
The Rhode Island council convenes advisory panels made up of commercial and recreational user group representatives who have extensive knowledge that they can bring to bear on issues significant to particular fisheries.
The council sends specific issues to a panel with the intent that the panel, comprised of voting members representing gear types in both recreational and commercial sectors, will focus on the issues and make recommendations to the council.
The council is under no obligation to act on a panel’s recommendation, but the expertise and perspective of the panel is sufficient to warrant the council’s consideration.
Monkfish limits
Prior to the council meeting, the state Division of Fish and Wildlife (F&W) held a public hearing on several issues, including a proposal to adopt state monkfish possession limits to, as F&W explained, “address the loophole between state regulations and the federal fishery management plan.”
F&W presented a commercial monkfish minimum size of 17" total length or 11" tail length and three possession limit options:
• 300 pounds tail weight or 966 pounds whole weight;
• 50 pounds tail weight or 166 pounds whole weight; and
• 300 pounds tail weight or 966 pounds whole weight with trawl gear on board and 50 pounds tail weight or 166 pounds whole weight with gear other than trawl gear on board.
All weights were for nonfederally permitted Rhode Island-licensed vessels.
Public reaction ranged from condemnation of any state waters monkfish fishery to support of higher possession limits.
Some people felt that the lack of state regulations undermined federal monkfish stock rebuilding efforts and created an inequality between federally permitted fishermen who must comply with federal limits and state fishermen who fish without restrictions.
While there was support for the more restrictive 50-pound possession limit, including a written comment with 50 signatures, one fisherman said that a 50-pound limit was too low to make fishing for monkfish in state waters profitable.
“There is a monkfish presence in state waters for about 30 days total, from April to June, and again in November-December,” the fisherman said. He added that responsible fishermen should take measures to protect the resource.
Other hearing issues
Other matters presented for comment were revision of floating fish trap regulations, adoption of Safe Harbor regulations to allow “deserving, damaged, imperiled, or needful fishing vessels harbor in the state,” and revision of cod and sea scallop regulations to address state-federal fishery loopholes.
Proposed cod regulations included a possible commercial and recreational minimum size revision to 22" total length. Proposed sea scallop revisions included a commercial minimum shell-size limit of 3.5" and a 400-pound shucked or 50-bushel in-shell possession limit.
The council then made its recommendations to Department of Environmental Management (DEM) Director Michael Sullivan on two of the five matters for consideration. It supported the revisions to the floating fish trap regulations and the Safe Harbor regulations.
The council said it wanted more information, including consideration of neighboring state possession limits for cod and monkfish and stock status, before making recommendations on the monkfish, sea scallop, and cod regulation revisions.
The DEM director has final authority to approve or disapprove regulations. As of mid-September, Sullivan had still not acted on a proposed lobster effort control plan (see CFN July 2006 for details).
Public hearing
The DEM will hold a public hearing on Oct. 16 to take public comment on proposed shellfish, finfish, and crustacean management plans and on amendments to commercial fishing licensing regulations for 2007 connected to those plans.
The hearing will start at 6 pm and take place at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography’s Corless Auditorium on South Ferry Rd. in Narragansett.
Copies of the proposed management plan and licensing regulations are available online at <www.dem.ri.gov/events/index.htm>. Scroll down to Oct. 16 and click on “public hearing.”
The council will make its recommendations on the tabled Sept. 11 public hearing items as well as recommendations for Rhode Island commercial licensing changes at its Oct. 18 meeting.
For more information on the public hearing or council meeting, contact Jason McNamee by phone at (401) 423-1943 or by e-mail at <jason.mcnamee@dem.ri.gov>.
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