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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 10
June 2007
ASMFC toughens penalty for lobster reg delays
ARLINGTON, VA – Except for Area 3 fishermen, all other lobstermen who are residents of a state that fails to implement lobster management measures required by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) will be subject to short-term shutdowns of the fishery to account for the state’s delinquency.
The new policy, which was adopted by ASMFC’s American Lobster Management Board at its May 8 meeting here, will kick in when a state fails to adopt required adjustments to any of the following measures:
Minimum and/or maximum gauge sizes;
The v-notch possession rule;
Minimum vent sizes;
Trap allocations; and/or
Quotas or trip limits, which currently aren’t part of the fishery management plan (FMP) but may be in the future.
Officially called the “delayed implementation program,” the new action stipulates that for each day a state does not implement any of the above listed measures, that particular state’s “resident lobstermen” will be “prohibited from fishing for or landing lobsters for an equal number of days during the same or equivalent time period in the following year, regardless of the area in which they are authorized to fish or the state in which they are authorized to land.”
Here’s how this would work. If, for example, Area 2 states were required to implement a gauge increase by Jan. 1, 2008 and one of those states failed to do so until Jan. 14, 2008, then “resident lobstermen” of that state would not be able to fish from Jan. 1, 2009 through Jan. 14, 2009 – or an equivalent period – because the state failed to meet the required deadline.
Area 3 lobstermen are exempt from this new penalty schedule because they fish offshore in federal waters and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), rather than state agencies, officially implements Area 3 lobster rules.
Purpose
Even though the new provision is part of Addendum XI to the interstate lobster plan, which primarily addresses rebuilding of the Southern New England lobster stock, the delayed implementation program will apply to all areas and all lobster amendments and addendums once it’s in place. States have until June 30, 2008 to implement the provision.
The purpose of the program is to prevent a state from “negatively impacting” the goals and objectives of the overall lobster FMP by failing to adopt key management measures in a timely way. According to ASMFC, one state’s failure to act could adversely impact resource conservation, as well as the sacrifices of fishermen in other states.
The program is not intended to replace the existing noncompliance set-up that requires ASMFC to contact the secretaries of commerce and interior to request a broader fishery shutdown when states fail to implement management measures for the long term.
Instead, this new approach was approved to address short-term delays in implementation ranging from a few days to a few months.
The reason for the lobster board’s adoption of the new strategy stems back to ASMFC’s 2002 annual meeting when the commission’s Interstate Fisheries Management Program Policy Board charged each of the species management boards with determining if implementation delays have negatively impacted their management programs.
In May of 2006, the lobster board reached a “yes” verdict, which led it to propose the delayed implementation sanctions.
Industry reaction
Several industry members commented on the provision when Addendum XI went out to public hearing this spring, and the reaction was mixed.
During the April 16 hearing in East Setauket, NY, lobstermen there opposed the approach, with several saying, “We do not need to be punished for the failure of our managers.”
Offshore fishermen collectively worried about how the measure would impact Area 3 fishermen.
When ASMFC’s lobster advisory panel conducted a May 2 conference call to discuss the addendum, advisers generally thought the delayed implementation program had merit.
However, the majority felt the strategy “was not completely fleshed out,” said advisory panel Chairman David Spencer.
Area 3
The lobster board initially voted on May 8 to approve the provision for all areas, including Area 3, but that decision triggered strong opposition and deep concern among offshore lobster representatives.
Bonnie Spinazzola, executive director of the Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association, emphasized that such a provision would pose “several problems” for Area 3 lobstermen.
For example, if Rhode Island failed to implement an Area 2 measure, the state’s “resident” lobstermen would be penalized by a fishery shutdown, even if they fished exclusively offshore in Area 3.
Spinazzola argued that Area 3 lobstermen work under a different set of federal rules and shouldn’t be tied to the dock because of regulatory implementation problems related to inshore areas.
NMFS’s Bob Ross said NMFS also had numerous concerns about the provision overall, including one about how lobstermen might be prohibited from tending gear during a prolonged shutdown, which would be in conflict with a gear-tending requirement under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
After extensive discussion and then revisiting the issue, the board voted to exempt Area 3 from the delayed implementation provision.
Rep. Dennis Abbott, the New Hampshire ASMFC commissioner who made the motion to exempt Area 3, said, “The intent is to let them work with the feds. This really wouldn’t cause us any grief whatsoever.”
Janice M. Plante
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