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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 11
July 2010
Skate wing limit increases to 5,000 lbs in Amd. 3; bait limit at 20,000 lbs with LOA
GLOUCESTER, MA – In a textbook example of how better data can make a world of difference, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), responding to new scientific advice, has increased the skate wing possession limit in Amendment 3 to the federal Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan from 1,900 pounds to 5,000 pounds.
The anticipated increase was confirmed in mid-June and was widely praised by industry members.
“NMFS made the right move by changing the limit,” said Dave Murdoch, a Chatham-based fisherman and member of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association. “The most recent science tells us that the skate stocks are in much better shape than the agency thought.”
NMFS made this change at the request of the New England Fishery Management Council, which developed Amendment 3.
During its late-April meeting, the council received a revised recommendation from its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) for skates, which changed the entire outlook on stock status.
Last fall, the SSC handed down its initial acceptable biological catch (ABC) recommendation for the seven-species stock complex based on information it had in hand.
But this spring, the SSC had access to newly released fall 2008 survey data that it quickly incorporated into the equation. The new data showed “a marked increase in the availability of winter skates” – the target species in the wing fishery. As a result, the SSC upped the fishery’s ABC by 10,000 metric tons (mt). This boosted the total ABC to 41,080 mt (see CFN June 2010 for further details).
The New England council then asked NMFS to incorporate this revised scientific advice and a higher wing possession limit into Amendment 3, even though the amendment itself had already gone through the approval process.
NMFS did so and, on June 16, the agency published an interim final rule in the Federal Register. The rule came out as “interim final” instead of “final” in order to give people an extra 30 days to comment since the numbers changed so significantly compared to those in the proposed rule.
Landing limits
Even though the ABC and annual catch limit (ACL) for the skate fishery seems fairly high, the ACL has to account not only for landings but also for discards, scientific and management uncertainty, and landings by state-only permitted vessels.
Once those subtractions are made, what’s left is the federal total allowable landings (TAL) limit, which for 2010 and 2011 is 30.53 million pounds.
Under Amendment 3, the TAL is subdivided as follows:
Skate wing fishery – 66.5%, which equals 20.302 million pounds live weight; and
Skate bait fishery – 33.5%, which equals 10.227 million pounds live weight.
Bait fishery
The bait fishery TAL is further divided into three seasonal allocations, which NMFS said was “to help maintain a supply of bait across the fishing year.”
Season 1: May 1-July 31 with a quota of 3.15 million pounds, which is 30.8% of the bait TAL;
Season 2: Aug. 1-Oct. 31 with a quota of 3.794 million pounds, which is 37.1% of the bait TAL; and
Season 3: Nov. 1-April 30 with a quota of roughly 3.283 million pounds or the remainder of the bait TAL that isn’t harvested in Seasons 1 and 2.
To participate in the bait fishery, vessels have to obtain a Skate Bait Letter of Authorization (LOA) from NMFS, which then allows them to possess and land up to 20,000 pounds of whole skates per trip.
LOA conditions
Several conditions are attached to LOAs for the bait fishery. Possession of skates greater than 23" in total length is prohibited. All skates also must be landed as bait in whole form, and fishermen must participate in the program for a minimum of seven days.
Furthermore, bait fishermen must fish under a groundfish, scallop, or monkfish day-at-sea unless working in a skate fishery exemption area.
In a June 16 Federal Register notice detailing the provisions of Amendment 3, NMFS said the 20,000-pound possession limit in the directed bait fishery “was suggested by members of the council’s Skate Industry Advisory Panel as a mechanism to control the pace at which landings approached the quota period limits.”
Once 90% of the TAL is harvested in any given season – or for the full fishing year – NMFS will close the directed skate bait fishery and implement a bait possession limit that’s matched to the whole weight equivalent of the skate wing possession limit in effect at that time, which will be either 11,350 pounds or 1,135 pounds.
Vessels working under a groundfish Category B day-at-sea are limited to 500 pounds of whole skate bait, while fishermen who aren’t working under any type of day-at-sea at all are limited to 1,135 pounds of whole bait.
Wing fishery trigger
The 5,000-pound possession limit in the wing fishery applies only to vessels working under a groundfish, scallop, or monkfish day-at-sea. Vessels on a groundfish B-day, regardless of gear type, can only possess 220 pounds of skate wings, and boats not under any day-at-sea at all, including groundfish sector vessels, are capped at the incidental wing limit of 500 pounds.
Sector vessels that want to land the higher 5,000-pound limit have to use a day-at-sea to do so.
Once 80% of the skate wing TAL is landed, then the NMFS regional administrator will reduce the possession limit from 5,000 pounds to 500 pounds for the rest of the fishing year.
Accountability measures
In order to ensure that ACLs in the skate fishery aren’t exceeded, Amendment 3 contains accountability measures (AMs), as now required under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
If landings exceed either the skate wing or bait TAL by more than 5% in a fishing year, then the inseason possession limit trigger, which is 80% for the wing fishery and 90% for the bait fishery, will be reduced 1% for each 1% overage.
As an example, NMFS said that if skate wing landings exceeded the wing TAL by 10%, then the inseason trigger would be reduced from 80% to 70% in the next fishing year, which could result in a lower TAL that year.
Amendment 3 also contains another more complicated AM. If the total skate catch – landings plus discards – in a given year exceeds the ACL, then the current 25% buffer between the ACL and the fishery’s annual catch target (ACT) will be increased by 1% for each 1% overage.
To illustrate how this would work, NMFS said that if the ACL is exceeded by 5%, then the buffer between the ACL and ACT would be increased from 25% to 30% in the next fishing year, which also could have the effect of lowering that year’s TAL.
In a June 15 permit holder letter, NMFS said, “We encourage all vessels to make efforts to reduce skate bycatch and discards whenever possible, which will reduce the risk of exceeding the ACL and impacting the level of future landings.”
Off-limit species
Three of the seven species of skates in the Northeast skate complex are completely off limits – barndoor, thorny, and smooth skates – so landing and possession of those species is prohibited.
Skate identification guides are available on the NMFS web site at <www.nero.noaa.gov/sfd/sfdskate.html>.
For more information about skates, call NMFS’s Sustainable Fisheries Division at (978) 281-9315.
Anyone who needs a skate bait LOA should call (978) 281-9370.
And, finally, anyone who wants to comment on Amendment 3 by the July 16 deadline can fax comments to (978) 281-9135 or submit them electronically through the federal eRulemaking Portalat <www.regulations.gov>. Click on “open for comment/submission” and type “Skate Amendment 3” in the “key words” box.
Janice M. Plante
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