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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 1
September 2009
2009 SMAST video survey results
Scallop recruitment up on Georges Bank; Mid-Atlantic weak
NEW BEDFORD, MA – Scallopers received welcome news in late July when the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth School for Marine Science and Technology (SMAST) released the results of the 2009 Atlantic sea scallop video survey.
The survey was conducted April 27-June 25 aboard six commercial scallop vessels and covered over 37,000 square miles of bottom along the Northeast Continental Shelf.
Overall biomass calculated from video images taken at 2,646 sampling stations came in at an estimated 297.5 million pounds of meats – very close to last year’s estimate of 290.2 million pounds. According to SMAST scientists, the estimate indicates that the resource “remains very strong.”
But while total biomass remained steady, scallop distribution changed significantly between 2008 and 2009. The stock on Georges Bank increased by roughly 50 million pounds in 2009, while the stock in the Mid-Atlantic decreased by nearly the same amount.
As expected, sharp Mid-Atlantic declines were most noticeable in the Elephant Trunk Area, which has been open to harvesting in recent years under the fishery’s rotational area management program.
Recruitment
The 2009 survey also documented some promising signs for the future.
“There was a lot of recruitment on Georges Bank in the Great South Channel area,” said SMAST’s Cate O’Keefe, program manager for the school’s Marine Fisheries Field Research Group who also serves on the New England Fishery Management Council’s Scallop Plan Development Team.
While the best recruitment was found in the channel to the west of Closed Area I and just north of the Nantucket Lightship Closed Area, two other areas were supporting good recruitment – the Northern Edge of Georges Bank at the top of Closed Area II, namely in the Habitat Area of Particular Concern, and the southeastern portion of Closed Area II.
In the Mid-Atlantic, however, this year’s survey did not turn up any new, significant seed beds.
“We did note the lack of recruitment in the Mid-Atlantic,” said Kevin Stokesbury, chair of SMAST’s Department of Fisheries Oceanography.
He further explained, “On Georges Bank, it seems like you get a more steady recruitment, but in the Mid-Atlantic, it’s really a kind of pulse-recruitment.
“Look at the record recruitment event we saw in the Elephant Trunk in 2003,” Stokesbury said. “We haven’t seen that level of recruiting scallops in the Mid-Atlantic since, so now we’re on the lookout for the next pulse.”
Closed Area I
Stokesbury said the video survey documented another eye-opening occurrence in the southern portion of Closed Area I – numerous old, very large scallops, some simply buried in the sand, clearly dead. The area is off-limits to harvesting due to habitat protection.
“The scallops there seem to have gone through their whole 11-to-12-year life cycle,” Stokesbury said.
Regaining access to this portion of Closed Area I is a priority for scallop industry members, who are hoping the New England council will address the issue in either Amendment 15 to the scallop plan or through the council’s omnibus habitat amendment, both of which are currently under development.
Thanks to industry
The six commercial scallop vessels that carried out this year’s survey were the Karen Nicole, Horizon, Diligence, Endeavor, Courageous, and Liberty. Vessels conducted eight-day-long survey legs and carried two SMAST representatives along with their own fishing crews.
As has been the case since 2003, the survey was sponsored almost entirely by industry through donations of cash, fuel, vessels, food, gear, and supplies. Nearly 100 vessels contributed, as did numerous processors and shoreside support businesses of all kinds.
Shoreside, six SMAST students analyzed the extensive video footage collected during each cruise. SMAST’s overhead costs for the surveys have been covered with federal funds primarily secured by Massachusetts’ congressional delegation, along with other competitive grants.
Results made public
SMAST first presented this year’s survey findings on July 20 to its Scallop Research Steering Committee, which is made up of vessel owners, captains, crewmen, and industry suppliers.
Then, on July 22, representatives presented results to the New England council’s scallop PDT.
The PDT will use the findings, along with results from both the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and Virginia Institute of Marine Science scallop surveys, to develop resource estimates and recommendations for the council.
The council is expected to take final action on Framework 21 during its Sept. 22-24 meeting. Framework 21 will contain days-at-sea and access-area allocations for the 2010 fishing year, including resource allocations for the regular limited-access fleet, the general category individual fishing quota fleet, and the Northern Gulf of Maine area.
The PDT is working on numerous actions at once, including scallop Amendment 15, which is a major undertaking, so it announced early this year that it would need 2009 survey results prior to Aug. 1 in order to consider them in Framework 21. If 2009 results were not available by then, the PDT said it would base its recommendations on survey information through 2008.
Stokesbury said SMAST and industry worked hard to be sure the 2009 video survey results were ready in time to meet the PDT’s schedule for 2010 specifications.
“We were able to get the work done quickly, and the survey went pretty much without a hitch,” he said.
Gulf of Maine
On a different note, as Commercial Fisheries News was going to press in mid-August, the New Bedford-based Liberty was wrapping up a week-long exploratory survey in the Gulf of Maine with SMAST scientists.
The Gulf of Maine currently is not surveyed by any of the three ongoing annual scallop surveys. Efforts, particularly by Maine officials, are underway to promote survey work in the area so the scallop fishery there can be managed appropriately.
The Liberty was expected to check out bottom on Cashes Ledge, Jeffreys Ledge, and Fippines Ledge.
Janice M. Plante
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