COMMERCE
Subscriber Services
Classified Ads
Subscribe
Advertise
NEWS
This Month
Editorial
Letters
F/V Safety
Past Issues
ABOUT US
Contact Us
Latest Issue
Subscribe
History
MORE CONTENT
CFN Archives
Links
Each month exclusively in the PRINT edition of CFN
Along the Coast
Ask the Lobster Doc
Bearin’s
Classifieds
Coming Events
Editorial
Enforcement Report
FISH SAFE
Fleet Additions
Letters
Lobster Market Report
New Boats
News Catch
Quahog Market Report
|
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 4
December 2006
ASMFC board locked over summer flounder
ATLANTIC BEACH, NC – In a stunning reversal of a decision it had made just minutes earlier on Oct. 25, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Management Board “reconsidered” – and then shot down – its initial vote to adopt a 19.9-million-pound 2007 total allowable landings (TAL) limit for summer flounder.
However, the board couldn’t reach consensus on any other number either. After considering TALs of 12.983 million pounds and 14.156 million pounds – and failing to win majority votes on either option – the board finally put off making a decision for 2007 until it’s next meeting on Dec. 11.
The sobering summer flounder situation has stymied managers and kept fishermen at wits end for months now, and the scene that unfolded here in Atlantic Beach during ASMFC’s 65th annual meeting only epitomized how excruciatingly difficult all of the discussions have been.
The ASMFC board was well aware that the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council had recommended a 19.9-million-pound TAL back in August and stood by that number during its early October meeting.
Then, during the Oct. 25 ASMFC meeting, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) informed the board that, based on a scientific re-examination of the biological reference points for summer flounder, it was proposing a 12.983-million-pound TAL – a level that has a 75% probability of achieving the fishing mortality (F) rate projected to allow the level of rebuilding required by law.
While that was significantly higher than the 5.2-million-pound TAL NMFS floated in July, the new number would be a 45% decrease from the 2006 TAL of 23.59 million pounds and, by almost all industry accounts, would be economically devastating to both commercial and recreational fishermen.
NMFS published a proposed rule with the 12.983-million-pound figure in the Federal Register on Oct. 27 and accepted public comments until Nov. 17.
And that’s where things stood at press time in mid-November. Industry was left with the NMFS proposal, a Mid-Atlantic council recommendation that was significantly higher than what NMFS said it could justify implementing, and no action by ASMFC.
Peer review
Given the extreme controversy surrounding the entire debate, NMFS offered back in August during the Mid-Atlantic council meeting to “re-examine” the biological reference points for summer flounder.
That re-examination was led by a three-man team headed up by NMFS scientist Richard Methot, who was joined by Joe Powers of Louisiana State University and Owen Hamel of NMFS’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
Methot, who was in Seattle during ASMFC’s North Carolina meeting, called in and presented an overview of the panel’s work via speakerphone.
In what he called a “major finding,” which both ASMFC and, earlier, the Mid-Atlantic council agreed to follow up on, Methot said the panel determined that spawning stock biomass should be used to gauge the status of stock rebuilding – not total stock biomass, as has been the case in past assessments.
Methot also said the review panel could not pinpoint the causes of the strong “retrospective pattern” in the summer flounder assessment but nonetheless concluded the problem was “a reason for caution and further work.”
Since 1995, scientists have known that the summer flounder model has underestimated fishing mortality (F) and overestimated stock biomass and recruitment in the most recent five years of the assessment, which is what is meant by the term retrospective pattern.
After making technical adjustments to the numbers, the review panel came up with TAL projections for 2007. Federal law requires that a stock be fully restored within 10 years and the clock for summer flounder runs out in 2010. It is this situation that is driving NMFS’s extremely conservative approach to fluke management.
The panel calculated a TAL of 24.868 million pounds under a fishing mortality rate of Fmax=0.28. However, the panel warned that such a high TAL would not rebuild the stock by 2010 and included an added risk that Fmax would be exceeded “if the retrospective pattern continues.”
Based on this advice, ASMFC didn’t discuss that alternative. Instead, it focused on the panel’s next two projections.
The first involved a TAL of 14.156 million pounds with a fishing mortality rate of 0.15, which would result in a 50% chance of achieving stock rebuilding by 2010.
The other option was to reduce the TAL to 12.983 million pounds, which would take into account the retrospective pattern in the assessment and result in a 75% chance of meeting the stock-rebuilding schedule.
The 50% probability is the minimum standard for making these kinds of TAL decisions. But in this case, NMFS is extremely concerned about the impact of the retrospective pattern in the assessment.
In its TAL Federal Register notice the agency said, “The impact for management, given these persistent retrospective patterns, is that, although the summer flounder stock continues to increase, it is increasing at a lower rate than, and is currently at a smaller size than, previously forecast.”
Armed with the latest and best scientific information available and a better understanding of the NMFS position, the ASMFC discussion got underway.
Rebuilding timeline
The first issue ASMFC latched onto was the rebuilding timeframe and whether or not it could be extended beyond 2010. An extension would make it possible to support a higher TAL.
“We’ve been told that 2010 is a statutory obligation,” said New York Commissioner Gordon Colvin, who then asked NMFS to respond to an Oct. 13 letter from Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Sen. Robert Mendendez (D-NJ), and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) urging NMFS Director Bill Hogarth to extend the rebuilding period.
The congressional delegation wrote, “Congress intended to give your agency flexibility to deal with situations where management decisions could have disproportionate economic impacts or are subject to other unexpected factors, and while various groups may differ on the merits of your proposed changes to National Standard 1, your agency has clearly recognized it has the flexibility needed to address the situation we face in the summer flounder fishery.”
But NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator Pat Kurkul, who participated in the ASMFC meeting, countered this point and said NMFS was drafting a response to the letter.
“We have looked into the issue of flexibility,” she said. “We don’t see that the summer flounder situation falls into any of the provisions of the Magnuson Act. We don’t think we can change the statutory deadline.”
19.9 million up first
The review panel’s report didn’t sway several board members from staunchly supporting the 19.9-million TAL that’s still on record as the Mid-Atlantic council’s recommendation, and Rhode Island Commissioner Everett Petronio Jr. made a motion to adopt the number.
Fellow Rhode Island Commissioner Mark Gibson, chairman of the board, warned, “The 19.9 does not seem to be rooted in the latest information we have.”
But Pat Augustine of New York fought fiercely for it – at least at the start.
“If I had my way, I’d go with the (23.59), but that’s not defensible,” he said. “I’m taking the high road on this one. It’s really scary when you get to a point in time where the system is totally driving the economic impact.”
Massachusetts Commissioner Bill Adler also supported this course of action.
“The numbers we put up here are not going to destroy the fishery,” he said. “But the 12.9, as far as I can see, will be socioeconomically disastrous.”
Vito Calomo, ASMFC proxy for state Rep. Tony Verga of Massachusetts, concurred.
“I beg you to look at the bigger picture and support the 19.9,” he said to the board. “I am concerned that every fishing community is being destroyed. If rebuilding is taking place and we can extend the timeframe and not destroy fishing communities, I think we have an obligation to do that. It’s a balance on our part.”
Serious inequities
Kurkul, however, reiterated her previous point, saying, “NMFS does not have the option of extending the rebuilding timeframe. That’s not an option on the table right now.”
Furthermore, several commissioners and industry members from the audience began voicing deep concerns about equity issues if NMFS adopted a 12.983 TAL and ASMFC endorsed 19.9 million.
Despite the Mid-Atlantic council’s recommendation for the higher amount, the NMFS decision would rule, so if NMFS did implement 12.983 in federal waters, any commercial fisherman with a federal permit would be bound by that number.
That means the only people who could harvest the extra poundage would be state-waters-only commercial fishermen – of which there are very few – and state waters recreational fishermen.
“Our commercial fishermen will be greatly disadvantaged,” said North Carolina Commissioner Preston Pate. “The reality is we find ourselves in a partnership with an agency that does not have the flexibility we do.”
Jack Travelstead, representing Virginia, had the same concern.
“In Virginia, 95% of the commercial catch comes from federal waters and 99% of the recreational catch comes from state waters, so the recreational fishery could operate in Virginia while the commercial fishery was shut down,” he said.
“It violates one of the very premises that the FMP is built on,” Travelstead said, referring to the 60%:40% allocation split between commercial and recreational fishermen in the Summer Flounder, Scup, and Black Sea Bass Fishery Management Plan.
Rec perspective
Tom Fote of the New Jersey Coast Anglers Association said his group initially supported a 23.59-million-pound TAL.
“But we know that’s not realistic, so we’ll go with the 19.9, and we want an independent peer review,” he said.
The latest review for summer flounder was conducted by NMFS, Fote said.
“It would have been more transparent if other people were included. We’re looking for an outside review of all the targets and all the information because we think there’s something basically wrong with this 2010 rebuilding target.
“This is not a minor change,” he said, referring to the potential TAL reduction to 12.982 million pounds.
Kurkul said NMFS attempted to pull together scientists who were removed from the summer flounder situation, but given the short amount of time available to complete the review, the agency wasn’t able to engage outside experts.
Middle ground?
Connecticut Commissioner Eric Smith tried to amend the 19.9 figure to 14.156.
Dropping down from 23.59 million pounds in 2006 to 12.983 million pounds in 2007 was “almost impossible to contemplate,” said Smith.
But he didn’t think the board should ignore the scientific advice either.
“I think the responsible thing to do is acknowledge there is this retrospective pattern,” he said.
Arguing for the middle ground, Smith said the 14.156-million-pound TAL still provided a 50% probability of achieving stock rebuilding, which was appropriate.
The motion to amend failed. Then Colvin tried a different multifaceted tactic. He proposed that the board:
Immediately adopt a 2007 TAL of 12.983 million pounds;
Initiate a plan amendment change to extend the rebuilding period by five years;
Simultaneously ask the secretary of commerce and Congress “to take such actions as are necessary to revise the federal rebuilding schedule consistent with the ASMFC amendment;” and
When federal action is taken to extend the rebuilding schedule, revise the 2007 TAL at that time.
“We can do a full-court-press to extend our own rebuilding schedule and work with our federal partners to change their schedule,” said Colvin. “I think at the end of the day we can get to the same place if we get support from our federal partners.”
But Colvin’s motion failed as well.
Then the motion for 19.9 million pounds passed on a very close vote.
No final verdict
Following its work on other business related to scup, the board then reconsidered the 19.9-million-pound TAL.
However, motions to substitute that number with 12.983 and then 14.156 both failed, as did a reconsideration of the 19.9.
The board finally concluded it would revisit the specifications. A Dec. 11 meeting was scheduled for that purpose.
Janice M. Plante
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
