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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 10
June 2005
New Bedford auction holds its own
during ups and downs of 2004
NEW BEDFORD, MA – Here in New Bedford, the yellowtail capital of the region, the 2004 fishing year under Amendment 13 didn’t go quite as planned.
The fleet caught its usual share of yellowtail flounder, but the bulk of it came in all at once during June, July, and August when the Closed Area II Yellowtail Flounder Special Access Program (SAP) was running. The SAP was shut down on Sept. 3, yet the flood of landings quickly ate up a large chunk of the US quota share for Georges Bank yellowtail, leading to early and devastating closures of the Eastern US/Canada Area.
“It just didn’t make any sense,” said Richie Canastra of the Whaling City Seafood Display Auction in New Bedford, which handled well over 4 million pounds of large and small yellowtail during the three core months the SAP was open. “It lowered the price of flatfish all along the whole East Coast.
While the lack of access to yellowtail during the eastern area closures proved to be difficult for many fishermen, the New Bedford fleet found innovative ways to get through the fishing year and keep product flowing through the Whaling City auction.
In fact, the auction house’s volume actually increased, coming in at 22.6 million pounds for the May 1, 2004-April 30, 2005 fishing years vs. 21.3 million pounds the year before.
“We were up in weight, but some of that was because boats were going for skate wings,” Canastra said.
Haddock up
The auction saw more haddock too – roughly 2.9 million pounds last fishing year vs. 1.7 million the year before.
“There was more scrod haddock,” said Canastra, which many expected.
On May 3, three days into the 2005 fishing year, the National Marine Fisheries Service lifted the daily and total trip limits on haddock for the remainder of the year. Without any limits at all, many believe the fleet still won’t come close to catching the US haddock quota for the Eastern US/Canada Area, which is 16.7 million pounds.
But Canastra remains a bit worried about the processing community’s ability to absorb a large increase in haddock volume.
“The infrastructure is not able to handle it yet,” he said. “The processors are more focused on imports and product that has been regularly available to them. How can they go to a bank (to prepare for an influx of domestic product)? How can they give the bank a business plan when no one knows what’s going on with the regulations?”
Canastra isn’t opposed to trip limits as a tool to smooth out landings.
“I say put trip limits on yellowtail and haddock. Let the fishermen get the price and let the infrastructure gear up for it,” he said.
Janice M. Plante
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