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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 11
July 2009
NMFS floats options to boost US bluefin, swordfish landings
SILVER SPRING, MD – Responding to public demands for increased opportunities for US fishermen to catch their bluefin tuna and swordfish quotas, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is floating a broad range of possible regulatory changes.
NMFS Acting Director Jim Balsinger, referring to bluefin and swordfish, said, “There may be ways to fish more of the US quotas for both stocks in a sustainable manner.”
The advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) published on June 1 doesn’t specifically propose any measures. Rather, it lays out the pros and cons of a host of options and asks the public to comment on them.
Rich Ruais, executive director of the East Coast Tuna Association and Blue Water Fishermen’s Association, called the NMFS notice “a kitchen-sink ANPR.”
“Kudos to NMFS for responding to the public,” he said. “The proof will be in the pudding.”
Industry people have been stressing the need for quick action so the US fishery can demonstrate this year that it is capable of harvesting its quota allocation from the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).
To do otherwise, they have argued, will result in ICCAT reallocating uncaught US bluefin and swordfish quota to countries with little or no history in the fisheries and/or with less stringent fishery management policies.
However, while NMFS generally did what it legally could do to liberalize bluefin tuna restrictions for the 2009 fishery, any further changes will require the agency to develop and implement a regulatory amendment to the Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP).
At a minimum, that will take about nine months, according to the agency. Full blown plan amendments, which some of the options require, would take even longer.
“The good news is that a regulatory amendment is much faster than an FMP amendment,” said Ruais.
Bluefin
Among the potential management options for increasing bluefin catches are the following.
Daily limit – Increase or eliminate the general category maximum daily retention limit, which is currently three fish per day, and/or keep a limit but allow vessels to land more than one daily limit for multiple-day trips.
According to NMFS, the advantages of this kind of action could include more economic returns to commercial fishermen, charter/headboat operators, and dealers, as well as greater incentives to fish farther offshore on longer trips, potentially increasing catches.
Possible disadvantages include potential increased discard mortality of undersized bluefin due to additional fishing effort and increased bycatch of nontarget species.
Fishing year – Extend the general category fishing season, which currently runs from June 1 through Jan. 31, to expand fishing opportunities. NMFS has heard two specific suggestions in this regard: allow the general category fishery to operate year-round; or extend the season until the January subquota is taken.
This proposal is controversial within the industry. New England fishermen have long held the position that the traditional fishery should be restored to historical levels before increased quota is made available to the North Carolina winter fishery.
Charley Pereira of the Winter Bluefin Association based in North Carolina indicated that his group wants a 12-month season permanently established and will not support eventually returning to the June 1 general category opening date.
Harpoon limits – Change the current daily retention limit for the harpoon category of unlimited giants (81" or larger) and two large medium bluefin (73" to less than 81") by eliminating the limit on large medium fish.
According to NMFS, the upsides of this option are higher catches for fishermen, higher landings for dealers, and reduced discards of large mediums. One of the possible downsides is potential increased discards of fish under 73" due to increased fishing effort on smaller commercial-sized bluefin.
Minimum commercial size – Reduce the size of fish that can be sold from the current 73" or greater. NMFS has heard from a lot of industry people who want a 65" or 68" minimum commercial size, which is more in line with what it was years ago.
Another suggestion is to allow retention of a limited number of fish of some size smaller than 73" along with a set number of fish greater than 73".
For illustration purposes, NMFS gave this example in the ANPR: “One fish 65" to less than 73" plus unlimited (or maximum allowed under in-season daily retention limit) bluefin tuna greater than 73" per day.”
Making this change likely will be a lot more complicated than many commercial fishermen expect. In its ANPR comments, NMFS indicated that it expects any reduction in the commercial minimum size will “change future patterns of fishing mortality,” meaning the age at which fish are caught.
“This could potentially impact the projected stock recovery trajectory due to changes in assumptions used in stock status projections (regarding the reproductive potential of the stock),” the agency said. “Increased landings of smaller bluefin tuna could reduce projected spawning stock biomass and slow the rate of stock rebuilding.”
Changing the minimum size also could result in commercial and recreational fishermen pursing the same size class, NMFS said.
Charter/headboats – The ANPR contains several options that would apply to the charter/headboat category, including allowing these vessels to use harpoons and to fish commercially and recreationally on the same day.
The public comment deadline on the bluefin tuna options was June 30, shortly after CFN went to press.
Swordfish
However, the public comment deadline for options related to topics besides bluefin tuna is Aug. 31.
Among these are several options aimed at the swordfish fishery, including: increase the incidental catch limit on bluefin tuna for the pelagic longline fishery to improve profitability of longline trips and potentially increase swordfish landings; create a squid trawl vessel exemption from the multiple permits now required for these vessels to land swordfish; and establish a new HMS handgear permit.
This new permit basically would be an expanded version of the bluefin general category permit. In addition to bluefin, holders of this “HMS general commercial handgear permit” would be able to retain swordfish and some shark species.
The existing bluefin general category permit is an open-access permit, meaning anyone can get one. NMFS suggested the HMS handgear permit could remain open access or could be converted to a limited-access permit.
Catch shares
NMFS also is seeking comments by Aug. 31 on two possible catch share programs for HMS fisheries. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the parent agency of NMFS, has made the adoption of catch shares a priority.
The first option in the ANPR is a limited-access privilege program (LAPP), which would distribute a portion of the total allowable catch to fishermen through their permits.
“Even in a fishery that is not achieving its quota, such as bluefin tuna and swordfish, LAPPs provide an opportunity to ‘lock-in’ a share of the quota, which may prove valuable if the fishery becomes quota-limited in the future,” NMFS said.
The other catch share option is individual bycatch caps (IBCs), which would give permit holders a share of the total amount of allowable bycatch species, including nontarget species and, possibly, protected species.
Comment
More detailed information on the ANPR, including the 10-page Federal Register notice that details the questions NMFS wants the public to address, is available online at <www.nmfs.noaa.gov/sfa/hms>. Click on “Breaking News” on the left-hand side of the page.
NMFS scheduled five public hearings on the ANPR, including one in the Northeast. It was scheduled to be held June 29 at the Radisson Hotel Plymouth Harbor, 180 Water St., Plymouth, MA starting at 5 pm.
All public comment must be identified with this code number “0648–AX85” and sent to NMFS by any of the following means.
E-mail through the federal e-rulemaking portal at <www.regulations.gov>. Enter the identification number “0648–AX85” in the search box to get to the right page.
Fax comments to (301) 713–1917 addressed to the attention of Margo Schulze-Haugen. Or
Mail comments to NMFS SF1, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
For more information, call Sarah McLaughlin at (978) 281-9260 or Randy Blankinship at (727) 824-5399.
Lorelei Stevens
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