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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 33 Number 12
August 2005
Scallop general category proposed changes in FW 18
PORTLAND, ME – The New England Fishery Management Council has decided to include new proposals in Framework Adjustment 18 to deal with burgeoning landings and rapid growth in the general category scallop fishery, where permit holders are allowed to harvest up to 400 pounds of meats per trip.
At its June 21-23 meeting, the council reviewed recommendations from its scallop advisory committee. The advisers proposed limiting general category permit holders to using dredges with a total width measurement of no more than 8' and that the dredges be rigged with 4" rings and 10" twine tops.
The advisers also recommended that general category boats carry no more than three crewmen plus the captain.
While neither accepting nor rejecting these and other recommendations, or indeed making any specific decisions whatsoever, the council did agree to allow its scallop committee to go a step further and develop “input controls for the general category fishery to slow the growth in landings and to discourage new entry into the fishery.”
According to Andy Applegate, the council’s scallop plan coordinator, general category permits in 2004 increased by 11 percent to 2,805 with most of the increase presumably coming from vessels intending to target scallops.
Applegate also said that landings by vessels with general category permits increased to 3.1 million pounds or 5.2 percent of total 2004 landings.
This and other information prompted Massachusetts council member Rodney Avila to remark, “I’m concerned about the increase in the general category.”
And the comment led to a broader discussion about whether the council could treat people differently in Framework 18 depending on whether they participated before or after the general category scallop fishery’s Nov. 1, 2004 control date.
Caution all around
Scallop committee Chairman Tom Hill of Massachusetts said he was extremely troubled by recent developments in the fishery.
“If we don’t address this in some logical manner, we’re going to penalize long-term participants in the fishery,” he said.
“The number of permits explodes as soon as there’s any number of scallops close to the beach. I think it’s important that the council send a very strong signal that it’s going to stand by the control date. The council needs to caution people in some way that investing money in this fishery might not do any good,” Hill said.
The council’s attorney, Gene Martin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of General Counsel, cautioned the council against treating people differently in Framework 18.
“My advice is that that should be done in an amendment,” he said.
Proposing different regulations for people who entered the fishery prior to the control date vs. after “is a variation of a limited-access program,” Martin said. “You’d be doing just what you said you might do in the control date.”
Spare long-timers
Maggie Raymond of Associated Fisheries of Maine urged the council not to impose excessive controls on traditional permit holders.
“Associated Fisheries of Maine recognizes the very legitimate concern about new entrants into the fishery and the implications it has on the limited-access permit holders, and we would like to see that addressed in the proper way,” she said.
“But the advisers are asking long-term participants to bear the burden of the new entrants. You need to find a way to deal with new entrants without harming the people who have been in the fishery for a very long time,” Raymond said.
Attorney Stephen Ouellette, representing Barnegat Light, NJ general category scallopers, also asked the council to consider the implications of its actions.
“We think it’s inappropriate that input controls be put on current participants simply to discourage new participants. An 8' dredge is not appropriate,” he said.
Ouellette urged the council to look at implementing a moratorium on the issuance of new general category permits or other measures to address the situation.
“It appears to be time to go forward with something to curtail new permits or those after the control date,” he said.
Raymond supported this approach.
“The committee talked about initiating an amendment to deal with limited-access in the general category. That in our opinion is the correct way to go,” she said.
Hill attempted to make a motion that the council begin work on such an amendment immediately following Framework Adjustment 18, but council Chairman Frank Blount of Rhode Island ruled it out of order because the council had already set its workload priorities for 2005.
However, Blount said the council could take up the issue in November when it sets priorities for 2006.
Meanwhile, at its July 19 and Aug. 3 meetings, the council’s scallop committee worked on the development of input controls for general category boats that would be doable in Framework 18.
The full council will review these and vote on them during its Sept. 13-15 meeting in Fairhaven.
Janice M. Plante
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