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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 7
March 2006
Scallop Amd. 11 to address general category
PORTLAND, ME – In its first concentrated attempt to address capacity in the general category scallop fishery, the New England Fishery Management Council initiated Amendment 11 to the federal scallop plan and put its development on a “fast track.”
At a Jan. 31-Feb. 2 meeting here, the council went step-by-step through a “scoping” document designed to solicit input about how far the amendment should go in revamping this 400-pound-per-trip fishery.
“The reason we’re doing this amendment is we’re seeing a significant increase in mortality from the general category fishery,” said council member Tom Hill of Massachusetts, who chairs the scallop committee.
The seven topics approved for scoping focused on whether the council should:
• Use limited access to manage capacity in the general category fishery;
• Consider separate allocations for the current limited-access fleet and the general category fleet;
• Allow limited-access scallopers to fish under general category rules when not using a day-at-sea;
• Use a “hard” total allowable catch to manage the general category fishery;
• Consider sectors, harvesting co-ops, or other forms of dedicated access privileges under Amendment 11;
• Develop scallop incidental catch limits for vessels targeting other species such as groundfish or fluke; and
• Change the start of the fishing year from March 1 to something like Aug. 1 to better time the development of new management actions with the availability of data from stock assessments surveys.
What’s next
The council held three scoping meetings on Feb. 21, 22, and 23 respectively in Cape May Court House, NJ, Portsmouth, NH, and Hyannis, MA.
In addition, the Maine Department of Marine Resources held its own series of meetings.
Next, the council’s scallop committee will meet March 31 in Warwick, RI at the Hilton Garden Inn to review the scoping comments and receive additional advice from industry advisers.
The committee is expected to develop goals and objectives for Amendment 11 at that meeting for review by the full council in April.
At its June meeting, the council is expected to approve alternatives for a full-scale public hearing document.
Despite this aggressive pace, several limited-access scallopers, as well as the Fisheries Survival Fund (FSF), which represents the vast majority of limited-access permit holders, expressed concern at the February meeting in Portland that final regulations wouldn’t be implemented until the fall of 2007 at best or possibly March 1, 2008.
The March 1 date is being floated because it would facilitate implementation of a potential limited-access program given that it marks the start of a new fishing year, assuming the fishing year isn’t changed in Amendment 11.
“It’s good to see a commitment to quick implementation,” said New Jersey vessel owner Dan Cohen. “But initially we were talking about March 2007, and now it might be March of 2008. We’ve lost potentially one year.”
Advisers
Limited-access scallopers also questioned the council’s decision to form a separate ad hoc general category advisory panel to help guide the amendment’s development.
The new 10-member general category ad hoc panel will meet separately and sometimes together with the council’s already established scallop panel, which is mainly – but not exclusively – made up of limited-access scallopers.
FSF attorney David Frulla said, “There are limited-access permit holders who do day-boat scalloping and they’re on the (regular) advisory panel. You shouldn’t exclude them from the general category panel.”
Tom Hill said the council had no intention of excluding anyone from any of the discussions.
“I want to emphasize that this ad hoc panel does not supersede the advisory panel we already have,” he said. “I’m going to encourage them (the two panels) to interact with each other a lot.”
Both advisory panels were scheduled to meet the week prior to the March 31 scallop committee meeting.
Landings increase
According to Deirdre Boelke, the council’s new scallop plan coordinator, the general category fishery in 1994 accounted for only 1.3 percent of total scallop landings. A decade later in 2004, the percentage had increased to 5.8 percent.
From March through October 2005, general category landings were up to 13 percent of the total. Of that volume, 12.3 percent was landed by vessels with general category permits and 0.7 percent was landed by limited-access vessels working under general category rules while not on a day-at-sea.
However, the 13 percent figure was expected to drop as data from the rest of the fishing year was added to the equation. A preliminary estimate of 2005 landings from March through December indicated that the general category percentage was down to 12.8 percent, and many predicted it would drop more since general category boats, which are often small and weather dependent, don’t typically fish hard in January and February.
As of February 2006, the number of vessels with general category permits stood at 2,887, and 838 of those boats were equipped with vessel monitoring systems, giving them the right to possess up to 400 pounds of scallop meats – with no more than one landing per calendar day.
General category worries
General category fishermen had plenty of concerns about the amendment and it was clear at the Portland meeting that they intended to follow the process closely.
Maine fisherman John Stuart wanted to preserve the original focus of the fishery.
“I believe the intent of the general category management scheme was to provide a place for small boat fishermen like myself to participate – to diversify from whatever other fisheries we were involved in,” he said.
General category permit holder Michael Ball urged the council to “throw out” the Nov. 1, 2004 control date.
“The quota will control it,” he said. “Otherwise, the permits will be for sale and you’ll get a few people owning a lot of boats.”
Echoing a position many people were finding themselves in, Ball said, “I love scalloping and love lobstering and I want to do both. I just bought a boat because it was safe, but it has no history. Where does this put people like me?”
Janice M. Plante
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