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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 5
January 2006
Scallop fleet heads into ’06 fishing year under status quo
GLOUCESTER, MA – Limited-access scallopers will start off the 2006 fishing year on March 1 under existing regulations because Framework Adjustment 18, which contains the days-at-sea and area rotation schedules for 2006 and 2007, won’t be implemented by then.
That means full-time scallopers will receive 67 open-area days by default. However, any days they use between March 1 and the implementation of Framework 18 will be deducted from their revised 2006 allocation.
Somewhat problematic is the fact that the open-area allocation for full-time scallopers under Framework 18 is 52 days – not 67. Though highly unlikely, any scalloper that fishes more than 52 days prior to the implementation of Framework 18 will have the extra days deducted from his 2007 open-area allocation.
Framework 18 to the federal scallop plan was developed by the New England Fishery Management Council. Given its complexity, the council took extra time to work on the document.
As a result, the council only submitted the completed framework package to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in mid-December for review and implementation.
Both the council and NMFS predicted final regulations would be in place by early June.
Meanwhile, the fleet can fish in open areas. The Hudson Canyon area, which has been closed since 1998, will become an open area until Framework 18 is in place. While some people were worried about this, others were less concerned, noting that scallop biomass had greatly diminished in the Hudson Canyon area, and few scallopers would waste an open-area day to fish there.
The Georges Bank access areas don’t open up until June 15. By then, the fleet should have final open-area and access-area allocations for 2006 and 2007 in hand.
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