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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 2
October 2006
Swordfish fleet wants access to US quota
SILVER SPRING, MD – Despite being openly wary that it might be “too little too late,” fishermen turned out during September for a series of meetings to recommend major management changes to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to help the US more fully utilize its legitimate share of the international quota for Atlantic swordfish.
NMFS held six of these sessions Sept. 14-27 from Massachusetts to Louisiana to take suggestions directly from industry.
The agency said, “The goal is to revitalize the fishery so that the swordfish quota is fully harvested in a sustainable and economically viable manner while bycatch is minimized.”
Industry members who put ideas on the table were hoping NMFS would take the advice seriously, and several said they thought the effort was sincere.
“I think it is a diligent effort by NMFS to find ways to re-establish the longline industry,” said Ernie Panacek, president of Blue Water Fishermen’s Association. “We need to reinvigorate this fishery. Otherwise, we will lose it.”
The beleaguered US swordfish fleet, whittled down to an estimated 80 or so boats with the majority concentrated in the Gulf of Mexico, has been falling far short of harvesting the US quota share established by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
In 2005, for example, the US adjusted North Atlantic swordfish quota was 6,336.1 metric tons (mt) dressed weight (dw). However, only 2,937.6 mt dw of that amount represented the US’s baseline quota. The rest – 3,398.5 mt dw – was carry-over from previous unharvested quota.
Consequences
The big fear is that ICCAT will take away quota from the US and reallocate it to other countries that have proven they can catch the fish, even if they don’t do so through the most environmentally friendly fishing practices.
“We don’t want to see the US losing quota share. We aim to retain it and we’re going to be aggressive about that,” said Rich Ruais, Blue Water’s new executive director.
A veteran of the ICCAT process from his years of representing bluefin tuna fishermen, Ruais added, “If you are not a major player in terms of the fishery, you do not have a voice at the table. That’s just a reality in international negotiations.”
What next?
The next ICCAT meeting is scheduled for Nov. 17-26 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In preparation for that meeting, NMFS was planning to take the following steps:
• Hold the six “listening” meetings to gather recommendations about how to better and more fully utilize the US quota share;
• Meet with its Atlantic Highly Migratory Species Advisory Panel (AP) Oct. 3-4 in Alexandria, VA to, among other things, review suggestions collected at the September listening meetings for how to revitalize the US swordfish industry; and
• Meet with its ICCAT Advisory Committee Oct. 16-17 in Silver Spring, MD to get more advice and help build a US position for swordfish going into the November ICCAT meeting.
Ruais said he expected both the AP and ICCAT Advisory Committee to “provide practical and realistic” advice that can be used to put together a complete package of recommendations for the US delegation to ICCAT.
Back on track
NMFS Chief Bill Hogarth, who is also the new chairman of ICCAT, has expressed to industry his own strong desire to get the US back on track, and Ruais believes it’s not just talk.
“I think the US is serious about regaining status as a major player,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to argue against not wanting the US to be a major player.”
According to Ruais and Panacek, as well as others in the business, that’s because the US probably has the most turtle-friendly, bycatch-friendly, and swordfish-friendly fishery in the world, providing a stellar example of how the quota should be harvested.
Furthermore, the Atlantic swordfish fishery is not overfished and NMFS said it expected the latest stock assessment, scheduled to be released prior to the ICCAT meeting, would “identify the stock as fully rebuilt.”
Live bait
During the listening meetings, fishermen put all kinds of ideas on the table, ranging from revisiting current time-area closures to rethinking the permit system.
Roughly 35-to-40 longliners attended the Houma, LA meeting, and their number-one priority was eliminating the existing prohibition on the use of live bait.
According to Ruais, who attended the session, these fishermen said the prohibition was unnecessary given the now-mandatory use of circle hooks and the rebuilt status of the resource.
They also said the use of live bait would make their tuna and swordfish operations more efficient, requiring less overall sets and time on the grounds, which in turn would allow more total fishing trips to catch more of the swordfish quota.
Incidental catch
Another widely held position among longliners throughout the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico related to incidental catch permits.
Anyone holding an incidental catch permit is limited to two swordfish per trip. Many called that limit “unrealistic” and warned that it only led to swordfish discards by fishermen involved in other fisheries.
“With the amount of quota we have, it’s stupid to have any commercial fisherman throw away swordfish,” said Blue Water’s Terri Beideman.
Early meeting reports indicated that fishermen suggested raising the incidental catch limit to as much as two-dozen fish.
Can this work?
Whether NMFS can implement changes fast enough to save what’s left of the US swordfish fleet and possibly entice some departed fishermen to come back remains to be seen.
“Some of the people have gone out of business,” said Beideman. “They (NMFS) swung the pendulum too far and should have made a course correction a long time ago. It’s going to take a lot to see if there are any boats left that want to put the money into it.”
Ernie Panacek also is all too familiar with those who reached the point where they just couldn’t get a paycheck out of the fishery, especially a few years ago when, already hamstrung by oppressive regulations, the US was flooded with cheap swordfish imports and the exchange rate made it difficult to make any money in the business.
But Panacek is seeing a change in attitude among consumers who now often look for environmentally friendly food items and domestic vs. imported seafood.
“I see a stronger domestic market and a more positive attitude from the buyers,” he said. “That is a good thing. We need to take advantage of that.”
Janice M. Plante
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