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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 7
March 2007
Maine wins lobster reporting phase-in period
ARLINGTON, VA – Lobstermen can expect to see a gradual phase-in of mandatory reporting, but Maine representatives to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) were able to win support at a Jan. 29 meeting for a revised program that will be far less burdensome than what was initially called for.
The action came as a huge relief to Maine officials who had pleaded for a slow and step-by-step approach to mandatory reporting given that Maine lobstermen are so dead-set against it.
Under the previous mandatory reporting program, which was approved by ASMFC last year as Addendum VIII, every lobster license holder would have been required to submit annual “recall” logs containing monthly summaries of landings-and-effort data by statistical area. That provision is not part of the new Addendum X program.
Instead, Maine’s delegation to ASMFC – Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Commissioner George Lapointe, lobsterman Pat White, and state Sen. Dennis Damon – fought hard for a much smaller program that requires only 10% of the state’s license holders to provide more detailed, trip-by-trip catch and effort data. Those license holders will be randomly selected and will submit the information to DMR on a monthly basis.
This provision also was part of Addendum VIII, but it was in addition to the annual recall logs. Under Addendum X, the 10% provision will be the only requirement for lobstermen.
Annual landings information will continue to come from dealer reports. Additionally, dealers coastwide will be required to submit “area fished” and price-per-pound information along with landings data. Lobstermen will need to tell dealers which statistical area their lobsters were harvested from.
Phase-in “better”
Maine officials said they had worried about how the annual recall logs would work. Since the state issues roughly 6,000 lobster licenses per year, the once-a-year flood of data would have been overwhelming.
Plus, officials were concerned about the quality of the data. Given that lobstermen were so opposed to the program, there was concern that many fishermen would have sat down in December and tried to remember – or “recall” – a year’s worth of fishing activity all at once.
“I was concerned about monthly reports on an annual recall basis,” said Lapointe.
Under the 10% program, the DMR and industry will be able to ease into the program, which ASMFC’s American Lobster Management Board stipulated must be implemented by Jan. 1, 2008.
Addendum X applies to all lobster-producing states. However, most states either implemented the reporting requirements of Addendum VIII or had comparable reporting requirements already in place. The board encouraged states with more comprehensive reporting programs to keep them.
So the primary beneficiary of Addendum X’s revised reporting program is Maine, a fact that didn’t sit so well with some of the other states.
Close vote
During the Jan. 29 meeting in Arlington, VA, Maine’s push for a phase-in approach to mandatory reporting barely squeaked by on a 5-4 vote, and some lobster board members called Addendum X a “step backwards.”
Board representative Dan McKiernan of Massachusetts said, “I have a concern that we’re turning back the clock here. In Addendum VIII, we had 100% reporting with 10% in more detail. Now we’ve seemed to waiver on having all harvesters report. One of the objectives of this addendum is to collect effort data.”
However, Lapointe emphasized that collecting detailed, trip-level information from 10% of 6,000 license holders still would be a considerable undertaking for the state and would provide a wealth of new information to scientists.
Pat White said, “If it’s 10%, that’s 600 license holders, which is more than some other states have for total licenses. I think that’s a huge first step for us in the state of Maine both for the DMR and the harvesters.”
The motion approved by the lobster board calls for trip-level landings and effort information from “at least 10% of active harvesters reporting,” along with “the expectation” that 100% of license holders would be required to provide these reports “in time.”
Lapointe warned that “in time” in his mind truly meant over a reasonable period of time – not next year or the year after.
“We’re going to need a little acceptance (from lobstermen) before we can do this,” he said.
Advisory panel
Maine lobsterman Bob Baines attended the board meeting to emphasize his state’s stalwart stand against mandatory reporting.
Baines is vice chair of ASMFC’s lobster advisory panel, which organized a Jan. 23 conference call to determine its position on Addendum X before the lobster board meeting.
Baines asked if this time he, instead of panel Chairman David Spencer, an Area 3 lobsterman from Rhode Island, could provide the advisers’ recommendations given the importance of the reporting issue to Maine.
Spencer concurred, and Baines prefaced his report by firmly stating, “The fishermen in the state of Maine are very adamantly opposed to mandatory reporting.”
The advisory panel, however, is made up of individuals representing all lobster producing areas in the Northeast, and the panel as a whole supported at least some level of reporting to help scientists conduct better stock assessments. The panel agreed to let the lobster technical committee determine the minimum reporting percentage.
“We want to try to have the data collected that the technical committee feels it needs but in a little simpler fashion,” said Baines.
From his own perspective he added, “We have no data collection systems in Maine so we’d rather not go from zero to 100%.”
Scientific view
When asked if the shift from Addendum VIII to Addendum X was a problem, lobster technical committee Chair Penny Howell of Connecticut said the technical committee had worried about the accuracy of information in annual recall logs.
Trip-by-trip reports submitted monthly, even at the 10% level, should be more accurate, she said.
While scientists would have preferred a higher level of reporting, Howell said, “I don’t want to be critical of the attempt to move off square one. What we have now is not enough. Anything that gets us in the direction of landings and effort data will be an improvement.”
Stock assessment scientists have struggled to provide stock status updates because ASMFC’s seven lobster management areas don’t line up with the three lobster stock areas – Gulf of Maine, Georges Bank, and Southern New England.
“That means we need the information by statistical area,” Howell said.
Some board members continued to express reservations about dropping the annual recall logs, which are required in Massachusetts, for one. And others, particularly Bill Adler of Massachusetts, worried about the burden of trip-level reporting on a monthly basis.
“I want the scientists to get the information but please, just keep it simple,” said Adler. “If it’s too onerous, the whole thing unravels. The fishermen have other things to do than fill out all these reports.”
Board member Eric Smith of Connecticut said there was “no doubt” in his mind that vessel trip reports were “the way to go in the long term.”
“This is the most valuable fishery along the coast. We need catch-and-effort data by the water body it comes from,” he said.
However, Smith was sympathetic to Maine’s plight on this issue.
“I don’t know how you force 6,000 Maine fishermen to do this before the DMR is ready to do it or the fishermen are in a comfort zone to do it,” he said. “I think we need to step back a bit and find a way to get a subsample of this. I wouldn’t mind doing that as a fallback process as long as people understood that, in the long run, fishery management needs 100%. We should walk before we run.”
For more information on Addendum X, call ASMFC lobster plan coordinator Toni Kerns at (202) 289-6400 or e-mail her at <tkerns@asmfc.org>.
Janice M. Plante
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