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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 8
April 2010
Scallopers start 2010 fishing year; allocations to change around July
GLOUCESTER, MA – The 2010 Atlantic sea scallop fishing year got underway on March 1 under a set of management measures that will change roughly four months into the fishery.
On Feb. 24, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued a letter to permit holders spelling out the fleet’s open-area days-at-sea allocations and access-area trips as they stood at the moment.
However, NMFS warned that many specifications will be adjusted once Framework 21 to the federal scallop plan is implemented. The New England Fishery Management Council revised Framework 21 at its late January meeting and resubmitted the document to NMFS at the end of February for review and approval (see CFN March 2010 for details).
NMFS said it is hoping to implement the framework in July. Here is a quick overview of what’s in place now, along with what is expected to happen once Framework 21 comes into play.
Days-at-sea
As of March 1, full-time scallopers were allocated 42 open-area days-at-sea, while part-time and occasional vessels were issued 17 and three days respectively.
However, if Framework 21 is approved as is, these allocations will be reduced to 38 and 15 days respectively for full-time and part-time scallopers. The occasional category will remain unchanged at three days.
NMFS cautioned fishermen to beware of the consequences of fishing the higher March 1 allocations, saying that any days fished in excess of the Framework 21 allocation will be deducted from a vessel’s 2011 open-area days-at-sea.
Access-area trips
Scallopers also will need to strategize over how and when to take access-area trips.
Under the March 1 rules, full-time scallopers have four trips total – three in the Elephant Truck Access Area and one in Delmarva. Part-time vessels have two trips total and can fish both in the Elephant Trunk or one in each of the available access areas. Occasional vessels may fish one trip in whichever of those two areas they choose. The trip limit is 18,000 pounds for full- and part-time vessels and 7,500 pounds for occasional boats.
Once Framework 21 is implemented, however, the allocations will change. Full-time scallopers still will be allowed to make four access-area trips, but only two will be allowed in the Elephant Trunk Area – not three – along with the one trip in Delmarva. They also will be allocated one trip for the Nantucket Lightship Access Area. The trip limit will remain at 18,000 pounds.
Part time, occasional
Under Framework 21, part-time vessels – as before – will receive two access-area trips. They can take both trips in the Elephant Trunk area or one in the Elephant Trunk and the other in either Delmarva or the Lightship.
The trip limit for part-time boats will drop to 14,400 pounds, which is equivalent to 40% of the overall allocation for 2010 access-area trips.
Occasional vessels will be able to make one trip in any access area of their choosing at a reduced trip limit of 6,000 pounds, which is equivalent to 8.33% of the overall 2010 allocation for access areas.
NMFS again warned that any vessel exceeding the Framework 21 limits on access-area trips or poundage will have their 2011 allocations deducted by the amount of the overage.
GC IFQ boats
As of March 1, the limited-access general category individual fishing quota (IFQ) fishery was allocated a fleetwide total of 1,964 days for the Elephant Trunk area and 728 days for Delmarva. Assuming Framework 21 is implemented as proposed by the New England council, those numbers will drop to 1,377 and 714 days respectively for the two areas.
The general category IFQ fleet will be allocated a fleetwide total of 713 days for the Nantucket Lightship area. The trip limit will remain at 400 pounds per trip, and limited-access general category boats are prohibited from landing scallops more than once per calendar day.
Other measures
NMFS also issued the following reminders to the fleet:
The general category IFQ program will begin on March 1 (see CFN March 2010 for details);
The Hudson Canyon Access Area remains closed to all scallop fishing due to high concentrations of small scallops;
Limited-access scallopers must comply with all observer notification procedures for all open-area and access-area trips, while general category boats only need to comply with observer notification procedures for access-area trips;
The 2010 total allowable catch (TAC) for the Northern Gulf of Maine Management Area is 70,000 pounds and will remain there under Framework 21;
The incidental scallop target TAC, which allows incidental catch permit holders to land up to 40 pounds of shucked scallops or five bushels of in-shell scallops per trip, is 50,000 pounds and will remain there under Framework 21; and
The research set-aside allocation is equal to 2% of both the open-area days and access-area TAC allocations and will be lower under Framework 21 than under the March 1 set-asides.
Observer comp rates
One percent of both the open-area days-at-sea and access-area total allowable catch (TAC) has been set aside to help defray industry’s observer costs.
Compensation rates as of March 1 are:
180 pounds of extra scallop meats above the trip limit for each day or part of a day that an observer is onboard during an Elephant Trunk or Delmarva trip, which applies to both regular limited-access boats and general category limited-access boats; and
0.10 extra days-at-sea for vessels carrying an observer on open-area trips, which is distributed by charging the vessel 0.90 days for each day fished while the observer is onboard.
Compensation rates for the Nantucket Lightship area will be determined after Framework 21 is implemented.
On Feb. 26, NMFS issued a permit holder letter announcing these rates and explaining – in great detail – how the numbers were calculated.
The compensation issue generated significant distress last year when the observer set-aside pool ran dry part way into the fishing year and scallopers had to pay full observer costs on their own (see CFN November 2009 for details).
Vowing to be more transparent in informing the fleet of how observer compensation rates are calculated, NMFS not only spelled out the process this year but asked the industry for feedback.
NMFS has the ability to adjust compensation rates during the year if they turn out to be off-mark, and an agency official said NMFS would use industry comments to support any necessary modifications.
Mail or fax comments to: NMFS, Sustainable Fisheries Division, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930-2276, (978) 281-9135. There is no comment deadline.
Anyone with questions or who wants to obtain a copy of the calculation summary can call NMFS at (978) 281-9315. /cfn/
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