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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 1
September 2007
GAO finds fault with whale rule; NMFS declines economic revision
WASHINGTON, DC - In deciding on new restrictions for the lobster industry and other fixed-gear fisheries to protect large whales, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) did not adequately address implementation issues, impacts on individual fishermen and communities, or gear marking requirements.
That was the conclusion of an analysis conducted by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) at the request of US Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) and delivered late in July.
“The findings of the GAO report … show that NMFS has not fully accounted for the potentially severe socioeconomic impacts of this decision on Maine’s fishing communities,” said Snowe. “Nor has the agency shown the extent to which its proposed rule will achieve the goal of reducing the interactions of whales and fishing gear.”
The GAO report was released several weeks before NMFS published the final environmental impact statement (FEIS) that lays out what the industry can expect when it publishes its final whale rule by Oct. 1 (see related story page 1A).
NMFS had originally planned to release the final rule to require the majority of Maine’s lobstermen to use sinking groundlines late last year. But in October 2006, the President’s Office of Management and Budget rejected the proposed rule and sent it back to NMFS for revision.
Snowe requested the GAO study after determining that NMFS was unable to provide “evidence or assurances that it fully analyzed various options for alleviating the economic impact on Maine lobstermen while still protecting whale populations.”
Those alternatives included exempting areas with few whale sightings and allowing the use of new whale-safe gear technologies under development, the senator said.
Findings
Among the findings detailed in the GAO report were that NMFS:
“Cannot estimate the extent to which risks to whales will be reduced by the rule’s proposed gear restrictions;
“Has not resolved potential implementation challenges with using modified gear in rocky ocean bottom areas;
“Did not adequately represent the economic uncertainties associated with the costs of the proposed gear modifications and could not fully assess impacts on fishing communities; and
“Has not developed strategies for fully evaluating (the) effectiveness of the proposed gear modifications.”
NMFS response
According to the report, the GAO recommended that NMFS take the following actions:
Revise its economic analysis to present a range of possible costs to reflect the fact that sinking groundline will need to be replaced far more frequently than floating groundline and that some lobstermen may no longer be able to fish at all under the sinking groundline rule;
Expand proposed gear-marking requirements to include markings on sinking groundline and require gear-marking in exempted areas in order to better assist researchers in identifying gear recovered from entangled whales; and
Develop a strategy to assess industry compliance in order to be able to determine if the new rules are working.
According to GAO, NMFS reviewed a draft of the report and “did not agree to revise its economic analysis or expand gear markings.”
However, NMFS did agree to develop a strategy to assess industry compliance but said it could not implement one before publishing the final rule. NMFS said it would discuss the compliance assessment strategy with the Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team at its next meeting early in 2008.
The full report is available for free download online at <www.gao.gov>. In the “keyword or report#” search box on the upper right hand side, type in 881. The report should come right up. If not, download it directly at <www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-881>. /cfn/
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