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 36 Number 6
February 2009
Scup stock rebuilt; MA proposes black sea bass adjustments
BOSTON, MA – There has been a real turn-around in the official view of the scup resource, and it may go a little way toward easing what is expected to be a very tough year for Massachusetts inshore fishermen.
In a Jan. 12 memo to the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Commission, state Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) Deputy Director David Pierce explained that National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Northeast Fisheries Science Center scientists held a “data-poor” workshop in December.
By applying new assessment techniques, the scientists determined that the scup stock was fully rebuilt and had exceeded its new and revised biomass target of about 92,000 metric tons.
NMFS was able to consider these new findings in determining the 2009 specifications for summer flounder, scup, and black sea bass and, on Dec. 31, announced that it had set a scup total allowable landing (TAL) limit of 11.18 million pounds – a 3.84-million-pound increase from the specifications the agency initially proposed.
The net result for Massachusetts is a near doubling of the state’s summer scup quota from last year’s 377,700 pounds to around 646,700 pounds for 2009.
This amount is still very small, especially compared to the state’s 2007 summer scup quota of just over 1 million pounds. However, it likely will provide some increased fishing opportunities for strapped Massachusetts fishermen.
BSB changes
While the black sea bass quota situation remains bleak at a very low 142,115 pounds for the state for 2009, the scup developments also are having an effect on state management proposals for black sea bass, which are sometimes taken during scup potting activities.
During its Jan. 15 meeting in Gloucester, the commission approved taking the following proposals to public hearing, probably in late February:
l Limit the directed spring scup hook and pot fisheries to seven days of fishing between May 16 and May 31 by allowing fishing only on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays with a daily trip limit of up to 200 pounds;
l Set the scup and black sea bass summer season start date at Aug. 17 and shift the year’s black sea bass quota to the summer season;
l Decrease open fishing days for the summer scup and black sea bass season to three per week – Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays – for pot and hook gear;
l Set the scup summer season daily possession limit at 200 pounds;
l Set the black sea bass daily possession limit at 300 pounds for pots and traps, 200 pounds for hooks, and 200 pounds for trawlers.
l Make no changes to the scup or black sea bass rules for the weir and trawl fisheries; and
l Require all fish pots, except for conch pots, to be removed after May 31.
Recognizing the impact of shifting the black sea bass quota entirely to the summer, the commission requested another option to allow some spring fishing opportunities for black sea bass. DMF will propose reductions in daily possession limits for the spring.
Tautog
In a related action, DMF has decided to recommend no changes to current regulations regarding the taking of tautog by pots. Basically, it is unlawful to pot tautog directly but it is OK to take tautog as a bycatch in the scup, black sea bass, and conch pot fisheries.
However, there has been confusion on that point and some fishermen have set pots for tautog in recent years. DMF Director Paul Diodati said he wants to take steps to prevent “the wholesale introduction of potentially many more fish potters into this very small-scale fishery.”
To do this, Diodati told the commission he had decided to restrict tautog potting to “certain pot fishermen in 2009 and 2010” through a letter of authorization (LOA).
LOAs “will be issued to sea bass pot fishermen who can demonstrate through their catch reports that they landed at least 100 pounds of tautog during each of the last three years,” Diodati said.
Bay scallops
Following an extensive briefing at the commission’s December meeting and a well-attended public hearing on Jan. 6, DMF recommended and the commission approved making permanent a significant change in how the Nantucket bay scallop fishery is regulated.
On Nov. 13, DMF took emergency action to allow island fishermen to harvest bay scallops that traditionally have been considered too small for conservation purposes.
Late last fall, it became clear to Nantucket fishermen and officials that the vast majority of scallops in town waters were “seed” under a long-held definition that required a scallop to have a raised growth ring at least 10 mm (0.4") from the hinge in order to be harvested.
Many of these “seed” scallops were in their second summer and had already spawned. However, under the existing rules, it wasn’t legal to harvest them.
DMF noted that increased water temperatures lingering longer into the fall had tended to lengthen the bay scallop spawning season. DMF Shellfish Program Leader Mike Hickey observed that this situation had been seen before in Nantucket in 1980, 1999, and 2000 and in Chatham in 1977, Orleans in 1979, and Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard in 1995.
The emergency rule change allowed fishermen to harvest scallops with a well-defined growth ring less than 10 mm from the hinge as long as the shell height was 2-1/2" or greater.
As a result, the scallop harvest was three times larger than it otherwise would have been, which turned out to be financial boon for both local fishermen and the island’s economy.
At its Jan. 15 meeting, the commission voted to allow Nantucket to fish under the emergency measure through the March 31 end of the bay scallop season and to maintain the measure into the future. In doing so, it rejected a proposal by Nantucket fishermen to replace the growth ring plus 2-1/2" shell-height standard with a 1" shell thickness standard.
However, DMF said it would continue to work with town officials and fishermen in Nantucket and other communities to further study the effectiveness of the new standard and other potential alternatives.
For more information on any of these fisheries, call DMF at (617) 626-1520.
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
