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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 11
July 2006
Managers reaffirm control dates for whiting, hakes, slime eels
GLOUCESTER, MA – Anyone interested in whiting or hagfish might want to pay particular attention to the renewed focus on control dates for both of these fisheries.
On June 12, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) published a notice in the Federal Register reaffirming the New England Fishery Management Council’s decision to have March 25, 2003 serve as the control date for three small-mesh multispecies – whiting, red hake, and offshore hake.
The council is developing a limited-access program for all three species and, in anticipation of this move, it asked NMFS to re-publish this existing control date so everyone would be on notice that the council continues to support it.
Furthermore, NMFS said the additional Federal Register notice is intended to notify the public that “interested participants should locate and preserve records that substantiate and verify their participation in the small-mesh multispecies fishery in federal waters.”
In late May and early June, the council held a series of scoping meetings to solicit input on a potential limited-access program for small-mesh multispecies, along with other related whiting issues.
Once measures are fully developed and vetted through the formal council process, they’ll be incorporated into an amendment to the groundfish plan (see CFN May 2006 for more details.)
Whiting is also known as silver hake, and red hake is commonly referred to as ling.
Hagfish
On hagfish, the New England council voted on June 13 in Newport, RI to reaffirm its support for the existing Aug. 28, 2002 control date for the fishery. Hagfish are also called slime eels and are not yet regulated under a fishery management plan (FMP).
Back in January 2002, NMFS was petitioned by Bill Palombo of Nippert Fishing Corporation to “immediately implement emergency measures to limit entry into the Atlantic hagfish fishery.”
NMFS denied the petition and instead published the Aug. 28, 2002 control date, which it said “will discourage speculative entry into the fishery.” NMFS further stated it would “urge the (New England) council to start work on a fishery management program” for this species.
The council has indicated a strong willingness to develop an FMP for hagfish, but for the past few years, groundfish, scallops, herring, habitat, and, more recently, whiting and monkfish, have monopolized the council’s time and resources. The reaffirmation of the control date is being viewed as an interim step until further action can be taken.
“The purpose of reaffirming the control date for hagfish is that it’s now four years old, so this keeps the control date from becoming stale,” said Chris Kellogg, the council’s deputy director.
Although the council has not received any new information about the status of the resource or the commercial fishery, Executive Director Paul Howard said previous information indicated that hagfish inshore were getting “smaller and smaller,” and vessels were traveling further offshore to fish, which, along with other information, “raised red flags.”
According to the original Aug. 28, 2002 Federal Register notice, the control date “will help to distinguish established participants from speculative entrants to the fishery.”
But NMFS also warned that no one is guaranteed “future participation in the fishery, regardless of entry date or intensity of participation in the fishery before or after the control date.”
According to Jim Weinburg of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, scientists will be conducting a new assessment for hagfish in late November.
Janice M. Plante
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