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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 5
January 2006
Rec fishermen facing cut in GOM cod catch
NEWBURYPORT, MA – Recreational fishermen might have to take a 35 percent reduction in fishing mortality on Gulf of Maine cod – the same percentage as commercial fishermen – under Framework Adjustment 42 to the groundfish plan.
According to the New England Fishery Management Council’s groundfish plan development team (PDT), the recreational component of the fishery has been harvesting between 25 and 30 percent of all Gulf of Maine cod landings in recent years. This group includes both party/charter boat fishermen as well as those on privately owned vessels.
The PDT used data from the 2005 Groundfish Assessment Review Meeting (GARM) to determine the recreational harvest amount.
If one component of the fishery, either commercial or recreational, takes less than a 35 percent reduction, the other component will have to absorb a larger reduction to achieve the Amendment 13 mortality goals.
At its next meeting, scheduled for Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in Portland, ME, the council will select one of the following options to reduce recreational cod mortality before it signs off on Framework 42:
Option 1 – A seasonal prohibition on the possession of Gulf of Maine cod from Nov. 1 through March 31 in statistical areas 511, 512, 513, 514, and 515 coupled with a 24" minimum size on recreationally caught cod;
Option 2 – A seasonal prohibition on the possession of cod in the Western Gulf of Maine Closure Area from June 1 through March 31; and
Option 3 – A seasonal prohibition on the possession of Gulf of Maine cod during April and May in the same statistical blocks as Option 1.
Under all three options, recreational fishermen still will be allowed to target other groundfish species during the cod prohibition.
The current cod minimum size for recreational fishermen is 22" with a 10-cod bag limit. According to the groundfish PDT, roughly one-third of the recreational catch of cod is by party/charter boats and the rest is by private vessels.
The council’s groundfish committee agreed to move forward with the above three options after reviewing a PDT analysis of an initial round of alternatives and then listening to feedback from its recreational advisory panel.
The initial round involved: reducing the bag limit to two cod for people on party/charter boats and three cod per person for those in private boats; an April-May ban on the possession of cod; or a shutdown of the Western Gulf of Maine Closure Area to recreational fishing from April through August.
According to the PDT, any one of those measures independently would achieve roughly a 35 percent reduction in recreational cod mortality.
At its Nov. 1 meeting, however, the council’s recreational advisory panel reviewed the PDT analysis and flatly opposed all three options.
When the full council met in Hyannis, MA in mid-November, advisory panel Chairman Barry Gibson said the panel instead voted to recommend a seasonal prohibition on the possession of Gulf of Maine cod from November through March, and, if necessary, assume a minimum size increase of up to 3".
After considering this advice and the PDT’s input, the groundfish committee dropped the bag limit alternative and agreed to have the PDT refine the options so that one contained the advisers’ recommendation.
According to groundfish plan coordinator and PDT Chairman Tom Nies, the PDT designed the three current Framework 42 recreational options to once again achieve roughly a 35 percent reduction in Gulf of Maine cod fishing mortality.
Rec request
Following his formal report as advisory panel chair, Gibson made additional comments as both New England regional director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and as a charter boat owner/operator himself since 1971.
“The recreational sector has historically been treated as something of an errant stepchild by this council,” he said. “The time has come for the council to fully and appropriately address recreational sector management.”
Gibson said recreational fishermen were requesting, “on a fast-track basis,” the following:
An allocation of 30 percent of the total allowable catch (TAC) of Gulf of Maine cod;
A control date for party/charter boats in the Gulf of Maine and timely development of a limited-access program for this component of the recreational fishery; and
A vessel and/or permit buyback program for the party/charter fleet if the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) approves the council’s proposed 35 percent fishing mortality reduction.
Recreational fishermen are willing to accept recent assessments indicating they harvest 25-30 percent of the cod, but Gibson said, “If you intend to manage the recreational sector as if it had a TAC and has exceeded it, then give us the TAC we deserve and give us the opportunity to prove to you that we can manage within its confines.”
Bill Wagner of the New Hampshire-based Northeast Captains Association supported this position. The association is part of the larger, 132-member Newburyport, MA-based Northeast Charter Boat Captains Association, which Wagner also spoke on behalf of at the meeting.
“If we now represent just about 30 percent of the cod that’s caught, then we should have an allocation and a control date to stop the growth in the charter boat fleet,” he said. “If the council does not develop a program for the charter boat sector and a broad brush is used (so that both commercial and recreational fishermen alike shoulder a 35 percent reduction in fishing mortality), there will have to be an economic analysis done.”
Control date
Maine council member Jim Odlin urged the council to vote on a control date for the party/charter boat fleet during the mid-November meeting so that the recommendation could be forwarded to NMFS for publication. NMFS is the agency that actually publishes control dates.
But council Chairman Frank Blount of Rhode Island expressed reservations since the topic hadn’t been advertised on the council’s agenda. Odlin then asked if the control date could be advertised and considered during the Jan. 31-Feb. 2 meeting, and Blount said yes.
Although the council did not put recreational groundfish issues on its 2006 workload priority list, Odlin said it was his intent to endorse a control date at the next meeting.
Janice M. Plante
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