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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 10
June 2006
NMFS authorizes GB cod hook sector for 2006
CHATHAM, MA – The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has approved all but two provisions of the 2006 operations plan for the Georges Bank Cod Hook Sector. The agency also said it may “reconsider” the two requests it disapproved after the New England Fishery Management Council discusses them in June.
The disapproved provisions were:
An exemption from differential days-at-sea counting in both the secretarial emergency action and Framework Adjustment 42; and
An exemption from the vessel size restriction tied to days-at-sea leasing.
As part of the overall plan approval, NMFS allocated the sector 615 metric tons (mt) of Georges Bank cod, an amount directly based on the collective cod landings history from fishing years 1996 through 2001 of the 37 members who joined the sector for 2006.
The allocation represents 10.03% of the 6,132 mt fishery-wide total allowable catch (TAC) for 2006. Under Amendment 13, the sector cannot receive more than 20% of the TAC in any given year.
Although the allocation seems considerable, the sector may not come close to harvesting its historic share if 2006 turns out to be anything like 2005, which was an enormous disappointment.
The sector’s then-49 members were allocated 455 mt of Georges Bank cod but could only catch roughly 35% of it.
“The fish aren’t there,” said sector Manager John Pappalardo. “They’re just not available to us.”
The reduction in days-at-sea might play a small role in the phenomenon, but Pappalardo said it doesn’t account for such a massive drop in landings. The core pool of sector boats landed just shy of 1 million pounds of cod in March of 1999, a mere seven years ago. This past March, vessels landed 1,000 pounds.
“People stopped going fishing,” said Pappalardo. “After 10 trips across the fleet of no catch, no one was going to go out to spend $500 on fuel to catch nothing.”
Observer notification
The sector lost 12 boats this year, but most were hand-line and rod-and-reel boats whose owners had decided to simply get out of the business. The 37 remaining members have, for the most part, been with the sector from the start, saying they want to preserve their fishery and maintain a way of life on Cape Cod.
The sector’s proposed 2006 operations plan was almost identical to the 2005 plan except for three additional requests. One of these – an exemption from the 72-hour observer notification requirement for sector vessels fishing under an A-day in the Western US/Canada Management Area – was granted by NMFS.
Days-at-sea, leasing
However, NMFS disapproved, at least for the time being, the other two requests related to differential counting and leasing.
“Both of these exemptions would modify effort-based management measures,” said NMFS in a May 1 Federal Register notice announcing the operations plan approval. “Given the substantial effort reductions that are necessary in the Northeast multispecies fishery and the fact that the sector relies on days-at-sea as a primary effort reduction tool for all stocks except Georges Bank cod, NMFS has determined that it is important that the (New England) council discuss in public these proposed provisions.”
Although the full council never took a formal position on the three sector requests, council Chairman Frank Blount of Rhode Island, in an April 10 letter, urged NMFS to hold off on the days-at-sea and leasing items, which NMFS agreed to do.
Blount’s letter contained concerns about the impacts on nontarget species and further said the council should talk about whether a vessel size exemption for days-at-sea leasing would affect effort.
“Arguably, larger vessels can fish further offshore and in more adverse weather conditions than smaller vessels, so even if the number of hooks fished is the same, these vessels may have more opportunities to fish,” Blount said. “Since only the catch of Georges Bank cod is controlled by a hard TAC, this could lead to additional fishing effort on other species.”
The council will discuss both disapproved items at its June 13-15 meeting in Newport, RI.
Sector’s case
Pappalardo didn’t think the sector’s requests should cause undue concern on anyone’s part.
Sector boats fish primarily in Block 114, he said. The differential counting of days-at-sea covering that area was intended, above all else, to protect yellowtail flounder, which sector boats don’t catch on hooks, argued Pappalardo. He conducted an extensive review of the hook fleet’s catch history in the area to justify the request.
As for an exemption from the vessel size restriction for days-at-sea leasing, Pappalardo emphasized that sector boats can only lease to other sector boats.
“We’re a small universe of boats and that’s our universe of days that can be used,” he said. “Our ability to set gear is based on the tide, and we have a quota on cod, which is our target species.”
NMFS seemed receptive to both requests but, after receiving Blount’s letter and others during a public comment period on the proposed operations plan, the agency disapproved the items to grant the council an additional opportunity to discuss them.
NMFS said it “may reconsider approval … if the full council concludes that the merits of such exemptions justify them.”
Janice M. Plante
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