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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 3
November 2009
FW 21 proposes new scallop area closure, 2010 specs
NEWBURYPORT, MA – The New England Fishery Management Council is proposing to create a new scallop rotational area in the Great South Channel under Framework Adjustment (FW) 21 to the scallop plan.
Federal and industry surveys conducted this summer found high concentrations of small scallops in the channel, particularly in the area north of Nantucket Lightship and west of Closed Area I.
Under the fishery’s rotational area management program, new areas can be temporarily closed to scalloping if exploitable biomass – meaning harvestable size scallops – is expected to increase by over 30% per year absent any fishing activity. The Great South Channel area meets this criteria, making it a valid closure candidate.
Closed areas are reopened to scallop fishing and become part of the rotational allocation when the annual increase in exploitable biomass slows to less than 15% per year absent fishing mortality, indicating that meat weights and shell size have increased substantially and yields from the catch should be higher.
The council is only considering two options here – no closure in the channel at all or a closure of the roughly triangular-shaped area north of Nantucket Lightship and west of Closed Area I.
Industry members have expressed early opposition to the closure, arguing, among other things, that effort from inside the proposed closure area would shift to open areas in the Mid-Atlantic, which would have a negative impact on the resource there.
Framework 21 proposes several other actions, including days-at-sea and access-area specifications for 2010, potential measures to reduce interactions with sea turtles, and minor adjustments to the industry-funded observer set-aside program.
The framework will not be implemented by the March 1 start of the 2010 fishing year. Knowing this in advance, the council listed specifications and other provisions from 2009 in Framework 21 that will roll over into 2010 to regulate the fishery until new regulations are put in place.
Days, trips
In late-October, the scallop plan development team (PDT) was finalizing its analysis of 2010 specification alternatives for Framework 21.
Potential allocations for open-area days-at-sea ranged from 29 to 51 for limited-access full-time vessels depending on the selected fishing mortality rate and whether or not the council would approve the proposed Great South Channel closure area.
Part-time scallopers receive 40% of the full-time allocation. Occasional vessels receive 8.33%. Only one limited-access occasional vessel remains in the fleet.
The PDT also was analyzing a number of access-area trip alternatives, which included two trips into the Elephant Trunk Area, one into Delmarva, and one into a Georges Bank area. The Georges Bank alternatives focused on Nantucket Lightship, but the PDT was reviewing the impacts of allowing partial access into Closed Area I or Closed Area II.
General category
NMFS intends to fully implement the general category individual fishing quota (IFQ) program established under Amendment 11 by March 1, 2010.
However, Framework 21 states that if the IFQ program is not fully implemented, then the current IFQ rules would remain in place. The fishery would be allocated 10% of the 2010 target scallop catch in the form of a hard TAC, which would be divided into quarterly quotas.
Once the IFQ program is fully implemented, IFQ fishermen will receive 5% of the target catch in the form of individual quotas.
The framework also proposes to set the 2010 hard total allowable catch (TAC) for the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area at 70,000 pounds. Vessels electing to work in this area in 2008 and, to date, 2009 landed less than 15% of that amount.
Turtles
Framework 21 also includes a number of alternatives for “reasonable and prudent measures” to bring the scallop fishery into compliance with the March 14, 2008 biological opinion (BiOp) for sea turtles (see CFN February 2009 and March 2009 for extensive BiOp coverage).
In short, the BiOp concluded that the scallop fishery “may adversely affect but is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of” sea turtles – primarily loggerheads. The finding was extremely controversial in large part because it was based on turtle “take” data from 2003 and 2004 and, so, did not reflect advances in gear technology and industry practices to avoid turtle interactions.
After considerable back-and-forth between the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the council, and industry over the extent of required actions, NMFS determined that “reasonable and prudent measures” were needed in 2010 to minimize impacts of incidental turtle takes, but only through restrictions that would not “result in more than a minor impact on the fishery.”
The Framework 21 proposals focus on the Mid-Atlantic where turtle/scallop interactions have been documented. Alternatives include:
Restricting the number of open-area days individual vessels can use in part or all of the Mid-Atlantic during certain “windows,” with June 16-Oct. 14 and June 15-Oct. 31 being the two options;
Restricting the number of access-area trips in the Mid-Atlantic during the same windows as above;
Imposing a seasonal closure of the Delmarva area from Sept. 1 through Oct. 31 or for the month of October; and
Reducing possession limits in the Elephant Trunk and/or Delmarva areas to reduce fishing time per trip.
What’s next?
The council’s scallop committee is scheduled to meet Nov. 3 at the Hilton Hotel in Providence, RI to review Framework 21 alternatives and make recommendations for the full council.
The full council will review those recommendations and cast final votes on the framework during its Nov. 17-19 meeting in Newport, RI. NMFS then must review the framework for approval and implementation.
For more information, call scallop plan coordinator Deirdre Boelke at (978) 465-0492, ext. 22, or e-mail her at <DBoelke@nefmc.org>.
Janice M. Plante
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