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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 6
February 2006
General category scallopers form NE coalition
CHATHAM, MA - A number of fishermen who have relied on the general category scallop fishery for years are trying to get organized so they can effectively participate in upcoming fishery management discussions to determine their future.
So far, the New England General Category Scallop Coalition has raised enough money to send out a mailing to 1,800 general category permit holders from Maine to Rhode Island.
“We’re a small group trying to get more people to join,” said Chatham fisherman Bob Keese. “If we don’t, we’re just going to get walked right over. With a little support, we could change things for the better.”
Keese and others especially want to be able to present a united front to the New England Fishery Management Council in the coming months as it begins work on Amendment 11 to the federal scallop plan. The amendment, which will focus on general category issues, is on the council’s list of top priorities for 2006.
Big growth fishery
The open-access general category scallop fishery has been attracting an increasing amount of attention over the last few years due to a surge of new entrants and skyrocketing landings.
According to preliminary statistics from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), general category vessels landed 7,256,723 pounds of scallops in 2005 – nearly twice as much as in 2004. The 2005 poundage is about 13 percent of the total preliminary scallop landing figure of 54.8 million pounds for the year.
Waterfront observers and new and converted vessel reports indicate that all kinds of boats are now using the general category permit, which limits possession to 400 pounds of scallop meats per trip.
There is the original core group of mostly inshore boats from Maine and Cape Cod, many of which didn’t qualify for limited-access scallop permits. Also, there are the limited-access boats that, once they’ve used up their days-at-sea, are allowed to catch 400 pounds per day like the general category permit holders.
Newer entrants to the fishery include desperate southern shrimpers who have been making their way north to fish for scallops out of ports in Virginia and New Jersey, as well as scores of other fishermen who have recently refitted or even built boats expressly to get into the 400-pound fishery.
Incentives, deterrents
The financial incentive is there for sure. Scallops that brought around $5 a pound in 2004 are routinely earning the boat $9-$10-plus per pound these days.
Demand in Europe seems to be insatiable and other European market suppliers, such as China, Japan, and Canada, recently made cutbacks in their fisheries, leaving the door wide open for US East Coast scallops.
That big money, combined with a limited law enforcement presence, especially in the Mid-Atlantic area, is widely believed to have led some boats to exceed the 400-pound limit.
That said, cooperative federal and state enforcement actions recently resulted in some serious cases against violators and the Dec. 1, 2005 requirement that 400-pound general category boats carry vessel monitoring systems (VMS) is expected to further curb illegal landings.
Shortly after that Dec. 1 date, 816 vessels had taken out the general category 1B permit, which requires an onboard VMS and allows a boat to possess 400 pounds.
Most of the rest of the former general scallop permit holders – around 2,096 – took out a general category 1A non-VMS permit, which limits landings to 40 pounds.
Also, NMFS published a control date of Nov. 1, 2004, which put newcomers on notice that anyone getting into the fishery after that date could be treated differently than people who got in before.
The New England council has indicated that Amendment 11 will consider limited entry for the general category. One of the things that has to be decided is whether the council will use or change the control date.
Still, the jump in general category permit participation has alarmed limited-access fishermen who fear that the increase in effort is undermining their hard-fought efforts to rebuild and predictably manage the scallop resource.
And long-time general category scallop fishermen are really worried that they will be unreasonably restricted as managers look for ways to bring the open-access fishery under control.
A good fishery
For Bob Keese, who owns the Beggar’s Banquet homeported in Chatham Harbor, the general category scallop fishery has a lot to recommend it. It’s prosecuted close to home, environmentally friendly, and good for fishing communities.
He and his brother, Andy Keese, got into the fishery in the late 1990s. Keese said he was looking for an alternative to offshore fishing and having so little time at home.
“I’ve done the trip boats. But with this fishery you can compromise, have a family life,” he said. “It’s a great fishery the way it is right now. My nine-year-old son goes out with me in the summers.”
Keese has read Amendment 4 to the federal scallop plan and believes the council clearly intended to set up the general category as a full-time fishery for local fishermen to benefit local communities – not as a supplemental fishery as some are now calling it.
“We are so dependent on having a local biomass close to port. We don’t have the range that the limited-access boats have,” he said. “The 400-pound boats are more environmentally friendly. The small boats can’t tow through the rock piles. Plus, we use a 9/16" wire with a small fiberglass boat.”
Added Tye Vecchione, who owns the Bada Bing and also fishes for scallops under a general category 1B permit out of Chatham Harbor, “The 400-pound limit is a good limit for a small-boat fishery. The VMS requirement is good. It curtails the cheating, as long as law enforcement uses it.”
Coalition
The Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association (CCCHFA) has stepped up to help the fledgling New England General Category Scallop Coalition get going by providing its office – familiar to CCCHFA members as “The Hook” – for meeting space and offering guidance.
Geoffrey Day, a management consultant based in Cambridge, MA, has also volunteered to be the coalition’s acting interim executive director.
Day said his connection to the fishermen stems from his efforts to develop a roe-on scallop market and from being involved in a cooperative research project to identify and deal with biotoxin issues that currently stand in the way of developing that fishery.
The coalition has already represented Maine and Cape Cod small-boat scallopers by petitioning NMFS to allow them back into traditional grounds in the Great South Channel this winter.
The fishermen have also begun working on measures to present to the New England council during the Amendment 11 deliberations.
Key issues
“We’re trying to crystalize key issues that we want to focus on, a well-thought-out platform that reflects the ecology, economics, and habitat issues involved in this fishery,” Day said.
“We support the inshore, small-boat fishery. We strongly support a research set-aside for the general category fishery. The general category is headed toward limited access but we believe there needs to be some way for a sternman or a kid in the family to acquire a permit,” Day said. “Right now, you either have to inherit one or buy it and the price is prohibitive.”
The important thing, he added, is for everyone involved to work together to decide what they want the council to do, figure out how it can best be done, and then present that information for the council’s consideration.
Beyond dealing with Amendment 11 and other acute issues affecting small-boat scallopers, the coalition could be a way for people to talk to each other about important issues such as gear improvements, safety issues, developing a day boat market, even seeding and aquaculture projects, Day said.
But the coalition’s priority now is to protect the small-boat fishery.
“There is pressure to try to limit growth and to impose inefficiencies on the general category to limit effort,” Day said. “This is a real wake-up call for the general category scallopers.”
For more information on the New England General Category Scallopers Coalition, call Day at (617) 576-2100 or Bob Keese at (508) 945-2216.
Lorelei Stevens
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