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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 3
November 2007
TMGC sets 2008 US/CA Georges Bank TACs
PLYMOUTH, MA – The US quota shares for Eastern Georges Bank cod, haddock, and yellowtail flounder are all expected to increase in 2008 as a result of decisions made by the joint US/Canada Transboundary Management Guidance Committee (TMGC).
Despite the increases – 35% for cod, 28% for haddock, and 80% for yellowtail – the numbers are still “very conservative,” said US TMGC co-chair George Lapointe of Maine.
The New England Fishery Management Council endorsed the TMGC recommendations at its Sept. 18-19 meeting, so all that’s left is for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to review and implement the total allowable catches (TACs) for each stock.
The US quota shares, if approved, will be:
Eastern Georges Bank cod – 667 metric tons (mt), up from 494 mt in 2007;
Eastern Georges Bank haddock – 8,050 mt, up from 6,270 mt; and
Georges Bank yellowtail flounder – 1,950 mt, up from 1,080 mt.
The TMGC is comprised of six members from each country. The US delegation is headed up by Lapointe, who is joined by fellow New England council members David Pierce of Massachusetts, Jim Odlin of Maine, and Mike Leary of New Hampshire. NMFS representatives Tom Warren and Fred Serchuk also serve on the US delegation. This year’s meeting was held Sept. 11-12 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
According to Lapointe, the quota shares were determined through a formula that weighted historical catches by a factor of 20% and resource distribution based on trawl surveys by 80%.
The TMGC based its decisions on advice from the US/Canada Transboundary Resource Assessment Committee (TRAC), the scientific arm of the TMGC.
The TRAC met back in June in St. Andrews, New Brunswick to update the status of the three shared Georges Bank transboundary groundfish stocks.
A better year
This year’s smooth-going quota sharing process was in stark contrast to the controversy that embroiled last year’s session.
Following the 2006 meeting, the New England council refused to endorse the TMGC recommendations for cod and yellowtail flounder.
The council expressed concern that Canada had exceeded its quota in 2005 and wasn’t accounting for the overage.
As for yellowtail, the TMGC initially recommended a higher TAC than the one proposed by TRAC scientists, and NMFS and some council members strongly opposed the TMGC figure.
Both issues were ironed out after a follow-up conference call among TMGC members, but the debate caused considerable tension and generated concern among industry members about the US/Canada Resource Sharing Understanding (see CFN November 2006 and January 2007 for full details).
Lapointe said Canada has since developed an effective process to account for any future problems with landings and discards, so that issue was settled.
“The TMGC feels comfortable that the Canadians have a way of adjusting for overages when they occur,” he said.
Eastern GB cod
Before the council voted to endorse the US quota shares, NMFS’s Loretta O’Brien provided an update on stock status as determined by the TRAC, which is comprised of both US and Canadian scientists. O’Brien is the TRAC’s US co-chair.
For Eastern Georges Bank cod, the age 3+ adult biomass is still half of what it was in 1990, but the population, which was estimated to be roughly 20,200 mt at the beginning of 2007, is up significantly from its low of 8,500 mt in 1995.
Furthermore, the 2003 year class, which is above average, is significantly bolstering the resource.
“The 2003 year class will account for one-third of the biomass in 2007,” said O’Brien.
The 2003 year class is good news, but scientists expressed concern over the 2002 and 2004 year classes – the lowest on record –and the below-average 2005 year class.
Another concern is that the fish are small, exhibiting what scientists call “low weight at age,” and they also have a “low recruit per spawner ratio,” meaning the smaller fish aren’t producing as many young.
According to the TRAC, these factors have “constrained rebuilding.”
Haddock
The Eastern Georges Bank haddock situation continues to frustrate fishermen and managers alike.
According to the TRAC, US haddock landings in 2006 totaled 445 mt and discards ran around 146 mt. However, Canadian landings were much higher – 11,984 mt – while discards ran around 67 mt. US fishermen argue that numerous regulatory impediments prevent them from being able to harvest their fair share of the haddock TAC.
By all accounts, the biomass is huge. At the start of 2007, the adult biomass was at 145,300 mt, “higher than the 1931-1955 maximum biomass of about 90,000 mt,” said O’Brien.
The 2003 year class continues to dominate the population. Estimated at 321.7 million fish strong, it is the largest year class ever observed.
In contrast, the 2001, 2002, and 2004 year classes and possibly the 2006 year class are all below average at less than 8 million fish, though the 2005 year class, at 30.5 million fish, is above average.
All factors combined, the TRAC reported, “Adult biomass is projected to peak at 159,000 mt in 2008, reflecting the recruitment and growth of the exceptional 2003 year class, and then decline to 146,000 mt in 2009.”
Growing so slow
The biggest problem with haddock is that the 2003 year class has been extremely slow growing.
“The outstanding 2003 year class was expected to contribute 66% of the 2006 catch but accounted for only 28%,” said the TRAC. “The failure of this year class to contribute as expected to the fishery resulted in more of the 2000 and older year classes being caught.”
As a result, the fishing mortality rate on older ages in the population ended up exceeding the fishing mortality reference point, despite the staggering size of the population overall.
By 2007, fishermen found it impossible to fish on Georges Bank without discarding undersized haddock. After receiving calls for help from both fishermen and the New England council, NMFS reduced the US commercial minimum size for haddock to 18" through a 180-day emergency action implemented on Aug. 10.
With a 180-day extension, this action would carry fishermen into next August. Scientists predict the haddock will reach 19" by summer 2008 (see CFN August and September 2007 for more info).
Yellowtail
The Georges Bank yellowtail flounder stock experienced a welcome recruitment event with the 2005 year class, which, at 62.9 million fish, turned out to be “near the highest value in the time series,” noted the TRAC.
However, recruitment overall since the mid-1990s has been low, and overall stock size is down from much higher levels in the early 2000s. The size of the age 3+ adult biomass at the start of 2007 was estimated to be 6,200 mt.
Scientists have had a hard time assessing this stock because it keeps producing an inexplicable “retrospective pattern” in the assessments. This means the models overestimate stock size and underestimate fishing mortality in the most recent years of the assessment. So far, scientists have been unable to find the source of the problem.
The TRAC used the “Major Change VPA” model for this assessment, which it called “an improvement over the Base Case model,” but added that the assessment still contains “uncertainties.”
Janice M. Plante
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