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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 12
August 2010
Scallopers hit Nantucket Lightship; avoid yellowtail
NEW BEDFORD, MA – Scallopers took full advantage of the June 28 opening of the Nantucket Lightship Access Area and steamed there en masse to reap the benefits of their single allocated trip into the area for the 2010 fishing year.
But the lucrative fishery was short-lived and, two weeks later, it essentially was over. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), 251 limited-access vessels made 330 trips into the Lightship as of July 14 and harvested roughly 5.5 million pounds of scallops.
The activity accounted for the vast majority of allocated Lightship trips, with some vessels making more than one trip through trip exchanges with other boats.
The fleet made tows in just about every nook of the area – minus a small stretch on the southern boundary – but with so many boats fishing all at once and jockeying for the best bottom, the grounds were, to say the least, crowded.
The Nantucket Lightship Access Area is small compared to the full Nantucket Lightship Closed Area. Scallopers are limited to a 334-square-nautical-mile portion, which takes up only 18.3% of the bigger 1,826-square-nautical-mile closed area.
Despite the congestion, however, the 2010 fishery was a success by most accounts. The price was high, often topping $11 per pound, and catch rates were solid, even though some boats needed to steer clear of certain bottom with older and poorer quality meats.
The Lightship was last open to scalloping as a rotational access area in 2008. Full-time limited-access scallopers were allowed to make one 18,000-pound trip into the Lightship this year, and part-time and occasional permit holders had the option of making a trip as well, although at reduced poundages.
Yellowtail flounder
Scallopers raced to the Lightship on opening day for one primary reason: People wanted to get in their trip right away in case the area was shut down early due to heavy yellowtail bycatch.
Once a yellowtail cap for an access area is reached, NMFS shuts it down and then issues additional open-area days to vessels that have yet to take their access-area trip.
But open-area trips are often less productive and therefore less desirable. In access areas, tows can be made on large beds of big scallops that have increased in size during off-cycle years.
For the 2010 Lightship fishery, scallopers were limited to 101,547 pounds of yellowtail bycatch. But as it turned out, yellowtail didn’t become a limiting factor after all.
According to NMFS, scallopers caught 24,793 pounds of yellowtail, representing just 24.4% of the available quota, as of July 14.
SMAST avoidance system
Some were thanking the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) for this positive outcome.
SMAST developed a yellowtail flounder bycatch avoidance system for the Nantucket Lightship fishery this year, and it seemed to benefit everyone involved (see CFN June 2010 for program details).
According to SMAST’s Cate O’Keefe, a total of 122 vessels signed into the program, so those boats were authorized to receive daily e-mail advisories about yellowtail.
Furthermore, 64 individual vessels actively contributed to the data pool. They supplied SMAST with daily reports about scallop and yellowtail catches on cumulative tows within pre-identified “cells” on a chart. SMAST had supplied the charts prior to opening day so fishermen could report their tows within 34 different prelabeled cells.
Once the fishery was underway, SMAST compiled the prior day’s submissions each morning and relayed key information back to the fleet, which included alerts to yellowtail hotspot cells.
Although the e-mail advisories were in text form, SMAST posted a chart on its website so fishermen could log on and view the cells in color-coded fashion. A red circle in a cell indicated a yellowtail hotspot, while a yellow circle highlighted medium-catch bottom that signaled potential concern.
SMAST quickly documented one yellowtail hotspot – Cell Q, located just about dead center in the access area. Three other cells turned up yellow, while the rest of the cells stayed green throughout the access-area fishery.
The program seemed to have met its goals, and O’Keefe said, “We would like to think it helped with yellowtail bycatch avoidance.”
However, she namely credited industry for its success, noting that captains made the decision to submit daily reports and bypass potential problem spots.
SMAST held a July 16 Fishermen’s Steering Committee meeting in New Bedford in part to get feedback on the program.
“The fishermen said they used the advice,” said O’Keefe. “They trusted the advice and said they liked the ease of the information.”
Asked whether or not SMAST would run the program again next year for other Georges Bank access areas, O’Keefe said, “Yes, and we got some advice from fishermen for how to make improvements.”
Janice M. Plante
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