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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 7
March 2010
Lobster TC to look at SNE, GOM 514 rebuilding options
ALEXANDRIA, VA – After debating its plan of action for pursuing an innovative traffic light approach to more easily judge stock status, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) American Lobster Management Board took another significant action during its Feb. 1 meeting.
The board voted to task its lobster technical committee (TC) with “identifying issues impeding stock rebuilding” in both Southern New England and in Statistical Area 514 of the Gulf of Maine, which essentially is Massachusetts Bay. The board further charged the TC with “developing a suite of measures to begin stock rebuilding” in each of those areas.
Several board members have expressed significant concerns about low stock abundance levels in Southern New England, but New Jersey board member Pete Himchak questioned how to deal with the issue given the “barrage of abuses” going on in the area, such as increased water temperature, shell disease, and other health problems.
Connecticut board member David Simpson said, “I agree that nonfishing mortality seems to be an issue here, but every time we get some improvement in the stock, we get a whole lot more traps in the water that take the lobsters away. We have a significant issue with latent effort.”
Massachusetts board member Bill Adler objected to the board’s intent to single out Area 514 in the Gulf of Maine.
“I have a problem with mini-managing. We’re trying to pick on a little part of a healthy area,” he said. “I don’t want to start picking apart little areas.”
Begin the dialogue
If the board was going to pursue management options for 514, Massachusetts board member Dan McKiernan said he wanted to start communicating with impacted lobstermen as soon as possible.
“I think dialogue is really important,” he said. “The average guy on the waterfront thinks the (Gulf of Maine) lobster stock is not overfished and overfishing is not occurring.”
Bonnie Spinazzola, executive director of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, also asked for early interaction with the Area 3 Lobster Conservation and Management Team (LCMT), which fishes offshore on the Southern New England stock.
“If the technical committee could sit down and talk with the LCMTs, it would be helpful in the future,” she said.
Board Chairman Mark Gibson of Rhode Island said the board would call in the LCMTs this spring as soon as it had “clear guidance” from the TC about Southern New England and Area 514.
Meanwhile, individual states that wanted to hold separate meetings with industry to initiate earlier discussions were free to do so, he said.
The board will review the TC’s recommendations when ASMFC next meets the week of May 3 in Alexandria. For more information on the TC’s concerns about these two lobster stocks, see CFN October 2009.
Janice M. Plante
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