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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 1
September 2007
NMFS lowers haddock minimum size to 18"
GLOUCESTER, MA – Recognizing the “irretrievable loss of significant economic revenues” resulting from the ongoing haddock discard problem on Georges Bank, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has taken emergency action to lower the commercial minimum size on haddock from 19" to 18" on both Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. The recreational minimum size is still 19".
The commercial size change went into effect on Aug. 10 and will remain in place for 180 days until Feb. 6, the maximum allowed under emergency action. NMFS said it intends to monitor the fishery closely “in order to determine whether this action results in significant changes in fishing behavior or substantive increases in fishing effort.”
Massachusetts quickly took emergency action to allow the 18" haddock to be landed within the commonwealth.
The states of Maine and New Hampshire, however, determined they had to go through normal rule-making channels, which means the 18" size, if approved stateside, might not be implemented in those states until October.
At its mid-June meeting, the New England Fishery Management Council had asked NMFS to lower the minimum size to 17" – just on Georges Bank.
That recommendation, however, passed in an extremely close 9-to-8 vote. Some council members had favored 18" over 17", and opinions were split about whether the action should cover Georges Bank alone, where the discard problem was most severe, or the Gulf of Maine as well, which would make the minimum size uniform everywhere and facilitate enforcement (see CFN August 2007 for extensive details).
NMFS opted to go with 18" resource-wide.
In the Aug. 10 Federal Register notice announcing the decision, NMFS said it made this choice primarily to “ensure meaningful and effective enforcement of the minimum size” and added, “Having differential size limits in the commercial fishery for two stocks of haddock that are landed by the same fishery in the same ports would make it virtually impossible to distinguish between the different size limits for enforcement purposes.”
NMFS said it was maintaining 19" for the recreational fishery because the magnitude of that fishery and associated discards “is much less than the commercial fishery.”
And, the agency added, “It is possible for a recreationally caught haddock that is undersized to be released alive, while it is more difficult to do so with commercially caught fish.”
Council, industry reaction
Tom Nies, the council’s groundfish plan coordinator, said the council was pleased that NMFS responded to its request to lower the minimum size.
“While we would have preferred that NMFS adopt the council’s recommendation, the agency’s action is a reasonable response and a welcome adjustment to address a difficult management problem,” he said.
“Temporarily reducing the minimum size will benefit the industry and reduce wasteful discards,” Nies added.
Maggie Raymond of Associated Fisheries of Maine agreed.
She, too, said her members would have preferred to see NMFS implement the council’s 17" recommendation for Georges Bank only.
“Then the Canadian imports might have been limited to the more restrictive 19" Gulf of Maine size,” she said.
However, Raymond concluded, “NMFS did the right thing by reducing the minimum size because it will turn some waste into landings.”
Rationale
NMFS clearly recognized the magnitude of the problem.
According to its own records, haddock discards from the Eastern US/Canada Management Area from May 1 through July 4 were estimated to be roughly 700,000 pounds.
“In the context of historic discards, the amount of haddock discarded in the first two months of fishing year 2007 is greater than the amount of haddock discarded during the entirety of fishing years 2006, 2005, or 2004,” said NMFS.
The agency determined that emergency action in this situation was warranted.
“Although the relative size of the 2003 year class has been evident since 2004, neither the observed slow growth rate of the year class nor the magnitude of the discarding problem were anticipated,” said NMFS.
The 2003 year class is the largest on record, and fishermen have found it impossible to fish for Georges Bank haddock without running into enormous quantities of these still-undersized fish.
“Because of the limited selectivity of trawl mesh, it is not possible to effectively target 19" haddock without catching 18" haddock,” NMFS said.
To delay action until the council could develop – and NMFS could implement – a framework adjustment or amendment to the groundfish plan would have taken much more time and would have resulted in additional mortality, continued discarding of large amounts of bycatch, and the diminished ability of industry to achieve optimum yield from the fishery, the agency explained.
An extension?
NMFS said it will evaluate the situation before the 180 days expire to determine whether there is a need to extend the emergency action for an additional 180 days. If so, the combined 360-day period may cover the timeframe needed for haddock on Georges Bank to grow to 19". Scientists at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center estimate that the bulk of the haddock should reach 19" by the summer of 2008.
Janice M. Plante
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