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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 10
June 2008
Whale TRT to consider float rope-endline tradeoff
BALTIMORE, MD – In a surprising turnaround, the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team (TRT) has indicated it is willing to consider proposals to allow the lobster industry to use float rope for groundlines instead of sinking groundlines in very limited areas.
But any expanded sink rope exemption will come at a steep price – a significant reduction in the number of endlines in the water column.
And, even if such an exemption is eventually adopted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), it almost certainly will not come in time to stop the Oct. 5 implementation date of the sink rope requirement for groundline now on the rule books.
Still, just the potential for relief, which for Maine fishermen would be only in “the sliver” area between the existing whale plan exemption line and the state waters boundary, was welcomed.
“There is a possibility that float rope will be allowed out to three miles in our area,” said Steve Robbins III, manager of the Stonington Lobster Co-op in Stonington, ME. “It’s a big deal here, and I’m excited that there’s a chance.”
Robbins, representing the Downeast Lobstermen’s Association, was one of dozens who attended a meeting of the TRT in Baltimore April 28-May 1. Patrice McCarron, a TRT member and executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), also attended.
McCarron said that even though it probably wouldn’t happen this year, any additional sinking groundline exemption would help.
“There’s not enough time,” she said. “However, getting back float rope for the future is useful. Sink rope will wear out quickly. The ongoing costs lobstermen face are frightening, so we are grateful for this opportunity.”
The float rope for groundline option came about following a flat-out rejection by the TRT of the “Maine Low-Profile Groundline Area Proposal,” which the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) submitted to the team in late January (see CFN March 2008 for proposal details).
Even after research by the DMR and testing by fishermen, the low-profile rope had critics on all sides – environmentalists felt it still posed a risk to whales, industry worried it wore out too quickly, and NMFS decided it was impossible to enforce.
At the same time, there still was some willingness among TRT scientists, environmentalists, and the feds to consider ways to address the dangerous hang-down problem lobstermen who fish rocky bottom will face with sink rope.
However, Maine lobstermen would have to give up an amount of endlines at least equal to – and probably greater than – the amount of floating rope groundline they would get back in any tradeoff proposal for the state waters “silver” area.
Five Maine entanglements
That’s because many TRT members feel strongly that it’s time to move on to the next big goal of the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Plan, which is to greatly reduce the number of vertical lines in East Coast waters.
“If the (Maine) proposal merely represents a neutral or only slightly positive conservation benefit, we would have a hard time supporting it,” said Vicki Cornish of The Ocean Conservancy.
Cornish added that Maine lobstermen who protest whale protection rules because they have never seen a whale in their fishing area need to know that NMFS documented five cases of whales entangled in Maine lobster gear between 1999 and 2004.
Of the five, three were right whales. One was entangled in gear set near Matinicus/Green Island, one in gear set near the mouth of Penobscot Bay, and one in gear set two nautical miles from South Harpswell. The other two were humpbacks entangled in gear set south-southwest of Matinicus Rock and off Saco.
Whose ox to gore?
Figuring out how to cut the number of endlines won’t be easy since opinion among Maine lobstermen varies greatly. While those who work with trawls may think it makes sense to ban or limit singles or doubles, lobstermen who use only one or two traps to fish around rocky areas are likely to disagree, McCarron pointed out.
“It gets us thinking about where and how people fish. A ban on singles with an endline cap is a different medicine depending on where you fish. The trawl guys may think it’s great, but other guys don’t feel like they have the option to fish differently,” she said.
In late May, the DMR was in the process of holding community meetings in each of the state’s lobster zones to get lobstermen’s advice on how to make an endline-for-float-rope tradeoff work (see story next page).
“This is a very serious question for the industry,” McCarron said. “And we know full well they’ll be asked to give up even more in the future.”
Short funding
Compounding the difficulty is the continuing lack of information on whale migration and behavior relative to lobster gear that can show how best to really help whales.
Federal funding for all kinds of whale research – biological, behavioral, gear engineering, and even disentanglement – has been cut dramatically this year, according to NMFS, the DMR, and whale scientists.
For the last five years or so, the DMR received approximately $300,000-$400,000 annually to fund whale research, monitoring, and disentanglement programs. For 2008, the department only received around $100,000 in whale program funding. So, the extra 10 cents Maine lobstermen are paying this year for trap tags – a total of about $330,000 – isn’t providing as much additional research as industry had expected.
According to the DMR’s Terry Stockwell, the trap tag money is being used to sustain current whale sighting and disentanglement networks and to carry out foraging and behavior studies and endline risk analyses.
“We’re trying to stage ourselves for the endline reduction discussions that are coming,” he said.
Other proposals
Maine lobstermen aren’t the only ones seeking relief from the sink rope requirement for groundlines. The TRT heard several other exemption proposals during its meeting in Baltimore.
Tom Burgess of Sneads Ferry, NC presented a proposal for a sinking groundline exemption on behalf of four North Carolina pot fishermen who work between Cape Lookout and Cape Fear. Burgess worked with NMFS gear research team member Glenn Salvador before and during the meeting to address questions and felt he got a positive reception from the TRT. The proposal now goes to NMFS for consideration.
Greg DiDomenico of the Garden State Seafood Association requested an exemption for grounds within Lobster Conservation and Management Area 4 known as the “17-Fathom Bank” where about 10 fishermen set traps in an old dumpsite loaded with rebar and other hang-up materials. Saying the proposal “wasn’t very well received,” DiDomenico said he would be working to gather more supporting information.
Oct. 5 firm
As of mid-May, NMFS, the DMR, and the MLA were all recommending that Maine lobstermen do their best to comply with the sinking groundline requirement by Oct. 5.
The MLA, with the support of US Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and Susan Collins (R-ME), was still waiting for a response from NMFS to its request that the agency delay enforcement of the sink rope for groundline provision because of concerns that there is no process to certify that rope complies with the final rule.
Offshore fishermen, too, were having trouble, according to Atlantic Offshore Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Bonnie Spinazzola.
“Lobstermen are guinea pigs in this process. A $5 break-away is one thing, but when you’re talking $85,000, it’s very hard,” she said. “Offshore lobstermen are struggling to do this because, ultimately, they think it’s the right thing to do. But it can’t happen by the deadline. It’s impossible. People are changing over as they can afford to do it.”
Despite these very real problems, there is little sign the environmental community will tolerate any delay in implementation or enforcement.
“Fishermen should continue on with their plans to comply with the sinking line requirement,” McCarron said.
She also suggested that fishermen take advantage of the Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation’s “Bottom Line Project,” a voluntary rope exchange that gives lobstermen vouchers towards the purchase of sink rope when they turn in floating groundline.
For more information on the rope exchange project, call Laura Ludwig at (207) 263-5300 or e-mail her at <laura@gomlf.org> or visit the foundation web site at <www.gomlf.org>.
Lorelei Stevens
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