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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 2
October 2007
ASMFC approves Area 6 lobster v-notch plan
ALEXANDRIA, VA – After deeming the program to be “conservation equivalent” to a 1/16" increase in the minimum gauge, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) American Lobster Management Board voted on Aug. 13 to approve Connecticut’s comprehensive v-notch plan for all of Area 6, encompassing both the New York and Connecticut sides of Long Island Sound.
The positive vote marked the culmination of a year-and-a-half’s worth of intensive work by Connecticut officials, the state Legislature, local lobstermen, three maritime-focused high schools, and the city of Bridgeport to develop and organize a program to replace the gauge increase required under Addendum XI to the interstate lobster plan.
Back in 2006, the Connecticut General Assembly appropriated $1 million to fund “a verifiable v-notch program to provide economic assistance to Connecticut’s lobstermen while ensuring that lobster stock rebuilding” got underway.
The appropriation led to the establishment of the Connecticut Lobster Restoration Advisory Committee, which has been working ever since on the program’s details.
“I am doing everything I can to make this work because, at the highest levels of government, this is what we wanted to do,” said ASMFC Commissioner Eric Smith, assistant director of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s Marine Fisheries Division.
Targets, backstop
The program calls for the v-notching of roughly 60,000 legal-size female lobsters each year for two years in a row – July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008 and July 1, 2008 through June 30, 2009. The legal minimum size for lobsters in Long Island Sound is 3-5/16".
The program also contains a backup for v-notching an “appropriately calculated” number of sublegal-but-mature females, plus “backstop” measures in the event that participants miss their v-notch targets (see box next page for details).
“The bottom line is, if this program does not produce the desired number of notched lobsters, the gauge goes up,” said Smith. “That’s where the conservation value is guaranteed. If we don’t meet our goals, the same number of lobsters still get protected.”
Students, lobstermen
The city of Bridgeport’s Board of Education is administering the program grant and is responsible for paying lobstermen for notched lobsters, coordinating each school’s involvement and paying students for their time, and overseeing insurance and legal issues.
Two students will ride aboard each participating lobster boat to do the actual v-notching, and the three participating maritime-focused high schools will rotate the students among vessels.
The notched pieces of tail flipper – the “chads” – will be saved by the students to verify the final count, and both of the student workers onboard each vessel, as well as the captain, will sign a form at the end of each day attesting to the count.
“There’s been a lot of thought that’s gone into making sure it’s a proper administration system,” said Smith.
Industry support
The voluntary program has been well supported by industry.
“We already have roughly 30 boats that have expressed a willingness to be involved,” said Smith.
Roger Frate, president of the Long Island Sound West End Lobstermen’s Association, traveled to Alexandria to urge ASMFC to support the program.
“We’re all for this,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of hard work. Let us try this thing out.”
Frate gave enormous credit to all three of Connecticut’s ASMFC commissioners – Smith, Lance Stewart, and state Sen. George “Doc” Gunther – for ensuring the details of the program were complete enough to pass muster at the board level.
Connecticut lobsterman Mike Theiler said fishermen voluntarily have begun instituting the program – even before its final approval – and many vessels in the fleet have upgraded safety equipment to accommodate the student notchers.
“We have a six-man raft now instead of a four-man raft,” he said. “If you’re going to be carrying a couple of school kids, you want to make sure everyone is covered.”
Nick Crismale, president of the Connecticut Commercial Lobstermen’s Association, praised the program for being what he called “the first collaboration between academia and the lobster industry” in Long Island Sound.
“I think it would be a very viable program,” he said.
What about NY?
Voicing a question on the tip of many tongues, Massachusetts Commissioner Bill Adler asked, “Where’s New York chipping in on the piggy bank here?”
Since the v-notch program covers all of Long Island Sound, New York lobstermen will remain at the 3-5/16" gauge as well even though they’re not officially carrying out any notching – unless they choose to do so on their own.
Karen Chytalo, acting chief of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Bureau of Marine Resources, acknowledged that New York at present didn’t have anything specific in place requiring lobstermen to v-notch.
But, she added, “We’re looking at this program as something we can sell to our fishermen. We’re watching it and of course we’re going to assist Connecticut in every way we can.”
Chytalo said New York would be changing its regulations to adopt the new 1/8" v-notch definition so that anyone catching a lobster with the smaller 1/8" notch, as opposed to the old 1/4" standard, would need to throw it back overboard.
The new definition was also part of Addendum XI. It defines a v-notched lobster as “any female lobster that bears a notch or indentation in the flipper at least 1/8" deep, with or without setal hairs. V-notched female lobster also means any female that is mutilated in a manner which could hide, obscure, or obliterate such a mark.”
Technical committee
ASMFC’s American Lobster Technical Committee (TC) evaluated the v-notch program to determine its conservation equivalency contribution.
Lobster plan coordinator Toni Kerns said, “The TC did not come to consensus on this, but the majority of the TC did find that the proposal had the potential to be equivalent to the gauge increase.”
However, the TC had several concerns, added Kerns. One of them questioned participants’ ability to v-notch so many lobsters each year in Long Island Sound. Some members also questioned the model used by Connecticut to estimate the program’s contributions to fishing mortality reduction.
Furthermore, the TC expressed concerns over the effectiveness of the program since other management areas within the Southern New England stock area were already at the higher 3-3/8" gauge, and Area 3, which covers offshore waters, would be going to 3-1/2" in 2008.
One TC member in particular thought the program undermined Addendum XI, which was adopted by the ASMFC lobster board in May to establish more uniform measures throughout the Southern New England lobster stock range (see CFN July 2007 for details about Addendum XI).
Given these and other lingering issues, Kerns said the TC wanted to evaluate the program annually to ensure that fishing mortality on females had been reduced by 20%-24% and on the total population by 10%-12%.
The lobster board concurred.
Enough money?
New Jersey representative Peter Himchak asked how Connecticut planned to stretch out the $1 million appropriation over two years.
“You’re talking about having us approve a two-year program, so at the end of the first year, maybe you could give us some sort of financial accounting,” said Himchak. “That would be my request.”
Eric Smith had no problem with the request and added that he thought the $1 million would cover more than a year’s worth of notching.
Plus, he said, Connecticut lobstermen would be going back to the Legislature this winter seeking a second appropriation, which Smith said he had every reason to believe would be authorized.
The Legislature has been extremely supportive of the effort, especially because of its educational component in putting students on the water, Smith explained.
“All indications we’ve gotten from the speaker of the house are that they like this program and there is support for it from both parties,” he said.
Conservation role
Maine ASMFC commissioners George Lapointe and state Sen. Dennis Damon both had questions about the role of lobstermen in the program and whether it was right for them to be paid given that other lobstermen had to shoulder their own conservation contributions.
“I want to give credit to the folks in Connecticut for coming up with a pretty innovative program, but I’m hesitant about the idea of paying for a conservation program,” said Lapointe, who currently chairs the full commission.
“If it goes beyond this program, I think it’s something we need to talk about as a commission,” he said.
Damon added, “I support v-notching so I also want to support Connecticut’s attempt to bring this before us today. But I have to be on record saying I truly believe that the fishermen have a role and responsibility in helping to preserve their resource.”
Smith said he agreed the program provided economic assistance to Connecticut lobstermen, but he emphasized that the Legislature intended to provide this money to lobstermen anyway, and with the v-notch program, everyone was gaining additional conservation value for that money, which was a positive benefit.
Why not both?
Massachusetts representative Vito Calomo emphasized his support for the educational aspect of putting high school kids on a working lobster boat.
“I think the program is tremendous in using students,” he said. “Maybe someday they’ll return to that industry.”
But Calomo said he didn’t understand why the v-notch program had to be a substitute for the gauge increase.
“Why does it have to be either/or?” he asked. “Why can’t we still do the gauge increase and they can do their program?”
Smith was quick to rebut that suggestion.
“You’ve just doubled up the conservation burden on lobstermen,” he said.
While extremely supportive of stock rebuilding, Smith said, “I’m not trying to drive a nail in the coffin of lobstermen.”
Massachusetts representative Dan McKiernan also had reservations about the program and noted the technical committee concerns. Adler, a v-notch supporter, questioned the fairness issue since lobstermen in Area 2 had to work under a higher gauge.
In the end, Massachusetts did not support the program and was the only state to vote “no.” Rhode Island abstained. The final count was 7-1 with one abstention.
Janice M. Plante
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