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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 6
February 2008
Scallop rules for 2008 start to take shape
GLOUCESTER, MA – Just prior to the New Year, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) published several actions pertaining to the federal sea scallop fishery.
These included:
• The final rule for Framework Adjustment 20, which maintains current trip levels and possession limits for the Elephant Trunk Area for the remainder of the 2007 fishing year;
• The proposed rule for Amendment 11, which will convert the open-access general category fishery to limited-access and establish an individual transferable quota (IFQ) program for qualifying vessels; and
• An extension of emergency regulations for the Temporary Paralytic Shellfish Poison (PSP) Closure Area.
Framework 20
On the regulatory front, NMFS implemented Framework Adjustment 20 on Dec. 24. The framework was developed by the New England Fishery Management Council to extend the interim measures currently governing fishing activity in the Elephant Trunk Access Area.
Framework 20 is a short-term action designed to cover the remainder of the 2007 fishing year, which ends Feb. 29. Without this action, the previous NMFS interim action would have expired and harvest limits for the Elephant Trunk would have reverted to Framework 18 levels, which NMFS, the council, and industry collectively determined were too high.
Like its interim action predecessor, Framework 20:
• Reduces the number of trips for full-time scallop vessels from five to three in the Elephant Trunk Access Area and maintains the 18,000-pound possession limit for these vessels;
• Reduces the total number of trips for part-time scallop vessels from three to two, which can be taken in a number of variations between Closed Area I, the Nantucket Lightship Access Area, and/or the Elephant Trunk area with an increase in the possession limit from 16,800 pounds to 18,000 pounds;
• Reduces the occasional vessel possession limit from 10,500 pounds to 7,500 pounds, with these vessels being allowed one trip in total within the access area of their choice;
• Reduces the general category fleet trip allocation for the Elephant Trunk Access Area from 1,360 to 865 trips, although general category vessels already used up their 2007 fishing year trip allowance as of March 15, 2007; and
• Prohibits the retention of more than 50 US bushels of in-shell scallops outside the boundaries of the Elephant Trunk area.
“Calendar day”
Framework 20 also clarifies the language regarding the prohibition on landing more than one general category trip per calendar day.
“The clarification allows vessels to depart on a subsequent trip on the same calendar day that the vessel landed scallops, but scallops cannot be landed by that vessel more than once per calendar day,” explained NMFS.
The agency defined the landing of scallops as “to begin offloading scallops, to offload scallops, or to enter port with scallops.”
FW 19 pending
Fishery specifications for the 2008 fishing year, which begins on March 1, are contained in Framework 19, which is still under review by NMFS.
The council approved the framework late in October and, after finalizing the document, submitted it to NMFS for review, approval, and implementation.
However, given the complexity of the framework and the large number of measures in it, NMFS warned industry members in a recent permit holder letter that Framework 19 might not be implemented by March 1.
If that turns out to be the case, NMFS said, “The (current) days-at-sea, access-area trip allocations, and access-area possession limits, including the Elephant Trunk Access Area allocations (in Framework 20), will remain in effect until replaced by allocations in Framework 19.”
In addition to 2008 and 2009 vessel allocations, the framework contains a new overfishing definition, a new Hudson Canyon closure area, modifications to the observer set-aside program, a vessel monitoring system power-down provision, research priorities, and a slew of general category regulations pertaining to the soon-to-be-established IFQ fishery.
Amendment 11
Although Framework 19 is the vehicle that will determine specific IFQ allocation numbers, the IFQ program first must be established through Amendment 11.
Amendment 11 is entirely devoted to converting the open-access general category fishery into an IFQ fishery. It spells out the criteria by which vessels will qualify for the program, and it sets up the process for determining the percentage of scallop catch to be allocated to the new, limited-access general category IFQ fleet.
The amendment is extensive and extremely detailed. Among many other things, it contains:
• Specifics about IFQ transfers;
• The IFQ cost recovery program through which NMFS will collect up to 3% of the ex-vessel value of landed product to cover the cost of enforcing and managing the IFQ program;
• Measures for the transition period between the open-access general category fishery and full implementation of the IFQ program; and
• Details for a Northern Gulf of Maine Scallop Management Area.
The proposed rule for Amendment 11 was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 17. The comment period closes on Jan. 31.
For more information on the Amendment 11 proposed rule, call Pete Christopher of NMFS at (978) 281-9288 or Deirdre Boelke at the New England council office at (978) 465-0492.
PSP closures
NMFS initially published emergency regulations in 2005 to close the northern and southern inshore PSP areas at the request of the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA). NMFS has since extended the closure several times.
This latest PSP action again extends the closure through Dec. 31, 2008. In the northern inshore PSP area, harvest is prohibited of “all bivalve molluscan shellfish,” including surf clams, ocean quahogs, mussels, and “whole or roe-on scallops.” Fishermen may continue to shuck scallops onboard and keep the adductor muscles.
In the southern inshore PSP area, the harvesting of whole or roe-on scallops is prohibited, but other shellfish harvesting is allowed.
The whole/roe-on scallop restriction continues to be necessary, said NMFS, because “scallop viscera and roe can retain PSP toxins longer than other species of molluscan shellfish.”
PSP can cause serious illness, paralysis, and, in extreme cases, death in humans. The inshore closure area restrictions were implemented because high levels of the toxin that causes PSP were previously present, and the FDA currently doesn’t have enough information to conclude that the area is safe to reopen.
Georges Bank PSP
Georges Bank has been under a PSP closure since 1990 when a fisherman and his wife reported PSP-like symptoms after eating mussels from the area. Sampling by the state of Massachusetts confirmed the presence of toxin.
Later, six fishermen on a vessel off Georges Bank became seriously ill after eating blue mussels. These mussels were “harvested in deep water about 115 miles from the island of Nantucket,” according to a summary report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All six fishermen were taken to a hospital emergency room, and two had to be hospitalized for two-to-three days. One lost but regained consciousness.
Georges Bank remains closed to the harvesting of bivalve molluscan shellfish – except for scallop adductor muscles – and the FDA continues to monitor the situation.
In fact, FDA scientists sailed aboard the Albatross IV during last summer’s scallop survey cruise and collected scallop viscera and gonads to test for PSP toxicity.
According to the field notes published by the NMFS Northeast Fisheries Science Center following the cruise, FDA scientists collected samples at almost every station where scallops were captured on Legs 2 and 3 of the cruise, which covered the greater Georges Bank area.
Summer survey
Late in December, NMFS released a summary report for the July 10-Aug. 16 scallop survey, which ranged from Cape Hatteras to Georges Bank.
According to the report, three different commercial scallop vessels participated in the survey. One was the Nordic Pride, which conducted sea trials with a newly designed 8' prototype scallop survey dredge developed in conjunction with industry advisers. The Nordic Pride towed both the standard 8' survey dredge and the prototype so scientists could compare how the two dredges performed.
“This allowed for a calibration between a commercial platform with both dredges and the Albatross IV, which deployed the standard scallop dredge,” reported cruise scientists.
The Celtic took over this work on Leg 3 of the cruise.
“They paired with us for 91 tows before running out of time,” scientists said about the Celtic. “We conducted 17 pairs of rock chain comparison stations in the Great South Channel to try to improve our calibration factor for the rock chain dredge in that area.”
The scalloper Kathy Marie towed an underwater digital camera system during the survey cruise.
“The camera system is capable of digitally photographing similar tracks of scallop habitat,” scientists reported. “The digital pictures are then overlaid and scallop counts and lengths can be calculated from the images.”
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