COMMERCE
Subscriber Services
Classified Ads
Subscribe
Advertise
NEWS
This Month
Editorial
Letters
Past Issues
ABOUT US
Masthead
Latest Issue
Subscribe
History
MORE CONTENT
CFN Archives
Links
Each Month In CFN
Along the Coast
Ask the Lobster Doc
Bearin’s
Classifieds
Coming Events
Editorial
Enforcement Report
FISH SAFE
Fleet Additions
Letters
Lobster Market Report
McKinley
New Boats
News Catch
Quahog Market Report
|
Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 9
May 2005
MA in a fluke quota mess; acts on squid, scup
PLYMOUTH, MA - A mix-up in summer flounder reporting has created a real mess for Massachusetts commercial fishermen, dealers, and managers.
Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) Director Paul Diodati explained the situation during the April 7 meeting of the Massachusetts Marine Fisheries Commission.
The state’s summer flounder quota is split between two seasons. Thirty percent goes to the winter directed trawl fishery and 70 percent goes to the summer fishery with a 300-pound possession limit for net boats and a 200-pound limit for hook fishermen, who now dominate the fishery.
For the last dozen years or so, the directed trawl fishery hasn’t taken its full 30 percent share and the remainder has been rolled over into the summer quota and harvested by summer participants.
This winter, however, the trawlers – likely spurred on by high prices and a need to find alternatives to groundfish – took not only the 30 percent quota share but substantially more.
According to Diodati, DMF was monitoring landings through the federal reporting system. When that system indicated the winter fishery had landed 30.7 percent of the state’s annual quota, DMF took immediate action on March 2 to reduce the trawl possession limit from 2,500 pounds to 100 pounds.
But that turned out not to be enough to prevent the growing overage.
“What we didn’t know was that the feds weren’t dumping all of the (landings) data into the system,” he said. “When we checked again right before the (March 21, 22) public hearings, we found that (landings) were more like 48 percent of the quota because the feds dumped the data they had been holding.”
Uproar
The immediate result was a certainty that there will be a substantially smaller quota available this summer. Not only will DMF have to subtract the 18 percent overage from the summer share, but there will also be no uncaught winter quota to add to the pot as there has been in years past.
“The fishermen who participate in the summer fishery were incensed,” Diodati said. “This has caused a tremendous uproar.”
Diodati said he had conferred with National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Northeast Regional Administrator Pat Kurkul and was hopeful something could be worked out to help ease the situation.
However, even if NMFS does allow a little leeway in the current year’s quota, Diodati made it clear that any overage will have to be repaid next year by the winter fishery.
Several commission members were not happy with that outcome, although the general feeling was that little could be done about it.
“Our fishermen should not be hurt because the feds screwed up,” said Bill Adler. “I think (NMFS) should some how make it up.”
No changes now
Commission member Rodney Avila reminded everyone that the directed trawl boats were the ones that built the landings history that gave Massachusetts its share of the coastwide summer flounder quota.
But to ease tensions between the winter and summer groups, he suggested finding a way to separate the two.
“If we could work out a winter quota that doesn’t impact the summer quota then we’d eliminate this problem,” he said.
DMF Deputy Director David Pierce observed that the summer flounder situation was “another example of how we have to learn to manage rebuilt fisheries.”
DMF had planned to propose changes to the summer fluke fishery regarding possession limits, season start date, and no-fishing days, but, in the wake of the public outcry at the hearings, Diodati decided not to recommend any changes for this year.
Squid season
Another controversial issue at the public hearings was a DMF proposal to change the end date for the inshore small-mesh squid season that starts on April 23.
Rather than the current practice of allowing for an extension of up to two weeks into mid-June as long as sea sampling data indicates that untargeted bycatch is low, the agency had proposed a firm June 7 season end date.
DMF Deputy Director Dan McKiernan explained that squid tubes have been consistently below desirable market size after that date for many years now and that most boats shift out of the squid fishery by the end of the first week, especially since the inshore summer flounder season starts on June 10.
“Could we get a good year? Sure. But the fishery’s performance in the second week of June has been pretty poor,” he said.
Industry reaction to the proposal was not positive, according to Diodati, who admitted he made things worse by commenting that he had the authority to decide whether the fishery stayed open or was closed. The comment was perceived as arrogant by some people, which was not his intention, he said.
In an attempt to compromise, Diodati proposed ending the squid season on June 9. The commission adopted the June 9 date.
Other decisions
The commission took action on a number of other issues discussed at the public hearings. It voted to:
• Establish new commercial striped bass regulations;
• Prohibit commercial fishing for groundfish while engaged in for-hire fishing;
• Increase commercial scup possession limits from 300 to 400 pounds for trawlers for the May-October period and from 100 to 200 pounds for all other gear types on black sea bass open fishing days only during the May 1-July 31 period;
• Eliminate the use of 4-1/2” mesh during the June-October period in waters south of Cape Cod;
• Adopt area-specific herring limits for Management Area 1B to comply with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) interstate plan and an annual specification process to allow DMF to make adjustments in Areas 1A and 1B as required by NMFS and ASMFC;
• Prohibit the finning at sea of spiny dogfish and adopt an annual specification process for enacting ASMFC-approved quotas;
• Establish new prohibitions on the retention of several coastal shark species – basking, dusky, sand tiger, and white sharks – to complement similar federal regulations; and
• Amend recreational rules for fluke, black sea bass, and scup.
The commission took no action on proposals to restrict the harvest and sale of river herring. DMF and the commission will continue to work on developing recreational winter flounder regulations to bring the state into compliance with the ASMFC plan.
Lorelei Stevens
Back to story list
|
|
Tell us what you think.
