COMMERCE
Subscriber Services
Classified Ads
Subscribe
Advertise
NEWS
This Month
Editorial
Letters
F/V Safety
Past Issues
ABOUT US
Contact Us
Latest Issue
Subscribe
History
MORE CONTENT
CFN Archives
Links
Each month exclusively in the PRINT edition of CFN
Along the Coast
Ask the Lobster Doc
Bearin’s
Classifieds
Coming Events
Editorial
Enforcement Report
FISH SAFE
Fleet Additions
Letters
Lobster Market Report
New Boats
News Catch
Quahog Market Report
|
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 12
July 2005
ME DMR photo
NMFS lifts haddock ban on herring boats
GLOUCESTER, MA – The herring midwater trawl fleet can go back to Georges Bank this summer without fear of being hit with large fines for inadvertently running into small amounts of haddock.
Using emergency action authority, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) lifted the blanket prohibition against possession of haddock and implemented a 1,000-pound per trip haddock possession limit for all Category 1 purse seine, midwater trawl, and pair trawl boats effective June 13. The possession of all other regulated groundfish species is still prohibited.
“I think this gives us something to work with,” said Mary Beth Tooley, executive director of the East Coast Pelagic Association. “It’s not perfect, but the biggest thing is it’s not the one-pound rule anymore that everyone was so distressed about.”
Last summer midwater herring boats voluntarily stopped fishing offshore rather than risk the penalities they faced for any haddock bycatch.
Among other things, NMFS’s action also:
• Suspended the haddock minimum size for Category 1 boats;
• Imposed a prohibition on the purchase and sale of Category 1-caught haddock for human consumption;
• Implemented “advance notice” landing requirements; and
• Required certain dealers and processors to cull out haddock from Category 1 boats.
Of particular note, the agency capped the catch of haddock by Category 1 boats at 270,000 pounds, equivalent to 1% of the 2005 target total allowable catch (TAC) for Georges Bank haddock.
The emergency rule will remain in effect until Dec. 10 with the possibility of being extended for an additional 180 days. The New England Fishery Management Council is working on a longer-term solution to the haddock bycatch issue through Amendment 1 to the herring plan, which is still under development.
Relief all around
Peter Moore of the American Pelagic Association had lingering concerns about the emergency action – namely the trip-limit provision – but he expressed gratitude that NMFS had taken solid steps to get boats back on the water.
“I’m just happy we have an opportunity to go fish,” said Moore. “The way it was before was untenable.”
The release of the rule came as a relief to many lobstermen as well.
Last year, bait shortages became acute when herring trawlers stayed tied to the dock, and lobstermen are hoping to avoid a repeat of that desperate situation.
“Bait is a necessity to us. We need to have herring boats out there,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.
“I was glad to see there was some sort of compromise made. I think it’s reasonable and I was encouraged by it,” she said. “The herring boats can keep fishing but they can’t profit from any of the bycatch, and there’s an overall bycatch cap.”
Call for help
The emergency action process began late last year when herring industry members approached the New England Fishery Management Council asking for help. Offshore vessels had reached a point where the zero-tolerance rule on the possession of haddock made it impossible to fish. Without a regulatory change, the Georges Bank fishery would, by default, become off limits.
The council’s bycatch committee worked on the problem and presented options to the full council. At the end of March, the council asked NMFS to take emergency action, and it presented the agency with a list of recommended emergency measures.
Action justified
NMFS took the council’s advice under consideration and concluded that the request was warranted “because the current absolute prohibition on the possession of haddock by vessels targeting herring appears to be unrealistic … given the very large haddock year class on Georges Bank, the size of which has not been seen since 1962.”
Early reports indicate that the 2004 year class could be large as well.
But as an added precaution – and at the urging of several organizations – NMFS included the 270,000-pound bycatch cap in the rule and said that if the cap is reached, all directed herring fishing by Category 1 boats throughout the Georges Bank haddock stock area will be prohibited. Furthermore, the flat-out prohibition on possession of haddock will be reinstated in “other areas,” which most importantly involves the Gulf of Maine.
The bycatch committee first presented the concept of a TAC cap to the council as an option for addressing the herring/haddock problem. But at the March meeting, NMFS expressed concerns about being able to monitor the cap.
As a result, the council turned to the 1,000-pound trip limit, which was strongly endorsed by some members but only reluctantly supported by others who favored the TAC cap.
NMFS said the cap as implemented through the emergency rule is different from the one initially discussed by the council because it will serve as a “backstop” that can be monitored through actual landings from Category 1 boats rather than be based “on an extrapolation of landings from incomplete data.”
Industry response
Rich Ruais, executive director of the East Coast Tuna Association (ECTA), is comfortable with the outcome despite many initial concerns about the council’s emergency action request. ECTA pressed government officials in the Northeast and in Washington to, at the very least, impose a bycatch cap and monitor landings at processing plants.
“The fact that there is a cap is a big improvement,” Ruais said. “Without a cap, there would have been no incentive to not avoid the haddock in the first place.”
Midwater trawl representatives have no problem with the cap.
“That’s what we were asking for originally. We were in favor of that approach,” said Mary Beth Tooley. “It addresses some of the concerns that other people have brought up.”
As for this year’s increase in observer coverage, which will help NMFS and the council determine bycatch areas, frequency, and levels, Tooley said her association didn’t have any problem with that either.
“All of the captains have nothing but positive things to say about the observers on the boats,” she said.
Peter Moore said the APA, which represents the NORPEL fleet of vessels in New Bedford, had always supported a TAC cap.
“The groundfish people need some assurance that there’s a limit,” he said.
However, Moore expressed concern with the trip limit.
He said midwater trawlers were very worried about the large year classes of haddock. They had wanted a haddock TAC to apply fleet-wide, so the fleet could work on an “alert” system.
If one boat ended up running into the haddock, it could alert the fleet to say, “This is a hot spot.” And the rest of the fleet could avoid it, significantly reducing bycatch. Then, whatever haddock was encountered by the advance boat would be deducted from the fleet-wide TAC.
“I just don’t think the trip limit does the skippers any favors,” said Moore.
Concerns
Ruais, who has been working with Moore to develop a new alternative for the herring plan to address midwater trawl fishing in the Gulf of Maine, still had one major reservation about the emergency rule. He said it should have required the “full retention” of all haddock bycatch.
“It’s obvious now that they (midwater trawlers) can’t distinguish the haddock signature from the herring signature on the machine. Without full-retention, if they run into haddock, they still have the freedom to dump fish,” he said
Despite this concern, Ruais was clear on one point. ECTA supports the development of the offshore herring fishery on Georges Bank.
“We want to see the effort shift from the inshore to the offshore,” he said.
Lobstermen, too, are following developments closely.
Patrice McCarron acknowledged the dilemma faced by her members, who worry about having an adequate bait supply but also are troubled by the introduction of new large vessels into the midwater trawl fleet, which might potentially fish in the Gulf of Maine.
“Those boats need to go to Georges,” she said.
Summing up the current thinking of the MLA membership, McCarron said, “There’s a high level of anxiety right now about the status of the herring stock and the availability of bait.”
Janice M. Plante
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
