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 32 Number 6
April 2005
NFI-SMC quota auction nets $$$ for research
CAPE MAY, NJ - A Jan. 10 auction of rights to fish for specific lots of Mid-Atlantic species raised over $700,000 to fund collaborative science projects – a big increase compared to the amount generated through a similar effort last year.
Representatives of about 29 vessels from Rhode Island, New York, and New Jersey participated in the auction, which was conducted by the National Fisheries Institute-Scientific Monitoring Committee (NFI-SMC) through a telephone conference call.
“Twice as many vessels participated in the auction, and these vessels pledged donations of about twice of what was raised last year,” said Eleanor Bochenek, NFI-SMC’s scientific outreach program coordinator. “We would like to thank them all for their active support of research.”
As part of its annual specification process each year, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council “sets-aside” poundage for research purposes.
For 2005, the National Marine Fisheries Service allocated the following set-aside amounts to the NFI-SMC: bluefish, 297,750 pounds; black sea bass, 91,500 pounds; Loligo squid, 562,350 pounds; summer flounder, 353,917 pounds; and scup, 240,000 pounds.
In all, 26 vessel owners won bids on lots of fish. The high-bid vessels were the Perception, New Age, Rianda S., Cory & Leah, Mt. Sinai, Patriot, Ruthy L, and the Virginia & Victoria, according to the NFI-SMC.
The money raised through this year’s auction will be used to fund the 2005 Supplemental Finfish Survey of Mid-Atlantic species and mesh selectivity testing in the Loligo fishery.
Converting discards
Research set-aside allocations can be fished outside of regulatory bag limit and season closures under exempted fishing permits, which NFI-SMC helps qualifying fishermen obtain.
Besides offering boats the chance to land certain species during times when landings are low and prices are high, the allocations have produced another benefit for some fishermen, according to Sima Freierman of Montauk Inlet Seafoods Inc.
“In some abundant Mid-Atlantic fisheries, New York is still on very small trip limits,” she said. By using a set-aside allocation, “a boat can turn discards into landings.”
Dave Aripotch, owner of the Montauk, NY-based Cory & Leah, offered this example. At certain times of the year, he can land pretty much all the winter flounder he catches but is restricted to a tight 100-pound trip limit for summer flounder.
With the research set-aside allocation he bought through the NFI-SMC-hosted auction, “I can save those fish. You’ve got to pay a lot for it, but you’re making money, too. It’s a lot better than throwing them back for crab food.”
Aripotch suggested one thing that would make the research set-aside program better – having environmental groups contribute to the cost of purchasing the quota.
“Conservation is great as long as it’s coming out of other people’s pockets,” he said in all seriousness. “The environmental groups should be buying this quota for us and distributing it to the fleet so we don’t have to throw it back.”
Research updates
The NFI-SMC is made up of about 40 member boats, as well as eight docks and a number of processors from Massachusetts to North Carolina.
The group was founded in 1997 to promote and foster cooperative research in the Mid-Atlantic in order to enhance the science used by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council to make annual quota recommendations and other management decisions.
The NFI-SMC is funding two major cooperative research projects this year working with scientists from Rutgers University and other institutions.
The Rhode Island-based Luke and Sarah is conducting the supplemental finfish survey of Mid-Atlantic species – the third straight year for the industry-supported program.
In January, the Luke and Sarah completed two transects in Hudson and Baltimore Canyons and was scheduled to complete additional transects along Baltimore and Hudson Canyons, as well as Poor Man’s Canyon, in mid-March.
The other project represents a new phase in an ongoing cooperative research effort to come up with a Loligo net that reduces bycatch of small fish and Loligo.
Participants have opted not to continue work on a scup-squid separator net that was found to have released too many marketable-size Loligo during real-world testing last year.
Instead, the Abracadabra and Starbrite, both from Cape May, are doing side-by-side comparison tows of standard codends – one with 6 centimeter (cm) mesh and one with 7 cm mesh.
The vessels made one trip in February and plan more trips starting in early April.
For more information on the NFI-SMC, call Bochenek at (609) 898-0928, ext. 12 or e-mail her at <eboch@rci.rutgers.edu>.
Lorelei Stevens
|
|
Tell us what you think.
