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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 9
May 2005
Council modifies VMS ‘power-down’ provision for 400-pound scallopers
NEWPORT, RI – In early February, the New England Fishery Management Council voted to include a provision in Framework Adjustment 17 to the scallop plan that would require vessel monitoring systems (VMSs) on all boats with general category scallop permits that intend to land and/or possess more than 40 pounds of scallop meats per trip.
After considerable deliberation, the council agreed that general category permit holders should be allowed to “power down” their VMS units while in port after the vessel is “secured to a fixed dock or mooring,” as long as the VMS isn’t required to be kept “on” by a permit in another fishery.
Based on the council’s initial vote, the VMSs would have had to be “repowered and logged in” before the vessel left on any fishing trip or got “underway” from the dock or mooring, and whenever the vessel was outside the VMS demarcation line.
The council included this language, especially the part about leaving on a “fishing” trip, to give boats the flexibility to move around in port to get ice, fuel, or conduct repairs.
At its March 29-31 meeting in Newport, however, the council learned that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) considered the power-down language to be ambiguous and difficult to enforce.
Andy Cohen, NMFS’s special agent in charge for the Northeast Region’s Office of Law Enforcement, said he could support the power-down allowance while the vessel was secured to a dock or mooring, but not while it was moving around port.
“If the VMS is off, it compromises our ability to enforce the rules. The whole program is cheapened,” he said. “If the vessel moves, the VMS has to be on.”
Is this better?
While many council members were disappointed with the enforcement position, most said they would “reluctantly” agree to modify the power-down language to make it more enforceable.
But not David Goethel of New Hampshire, who was fiercely opposed to the change.
“I don’t see how this perfection will capture any more violators at all,” he said. “In my mind, the power-down provision was to avoid unnecessary aggravation and hardship. I just don’t see why we have to intrude so much into people’s lives when the benefits are going to be so small.”
Massachusetts council member Tom Hill, chairman of the scallop committee, was sympathetic to the argument.
“David is right,” he said. “It is intrusive. But as we develop these systems for other fisheries, we have to be mindful of the needs of enforcement while making the programs as user friendly as possible.”
Ron Smolowitz of the Fisheries Survival Fund remained skeptical.
“I’d rather have the enforcement people concentrate on the real signals for real trips. Otherwise, we’ll have lights going on all over the place (on the enforcement VMS monitoring screen). I don’t necessarily think this is going to enhance enforceability at all.”
24 hours for others
Limited-access vessel owner Barbara Bragdon saw it differently.
“I think it’s a form of discrimination,” she said of the power-down allowance. “I own a big boat. Why can’t we do this too? We pay for VMS to be on 24 hours per day. We’re all in the scallop fishery.”
Currently, general category permits are still open access, but they restrict vessel owners to landing and possessing no more than 400 pounds of scallop meats per trip.
The council voted 13-1 with two abstentions to change the power-down language. The new proposal is that general category permit holders will still be able to power down while “secured to a fixed dock or mooring,” but that’s it. The VMS will have to be “repowered and logged in before leaving from a fixed dock or mooring and getting underway,” not just when leaving on a fishing trip.
The modified language was forwarded to NMFS, which expects to publish a proposed rule for Framework Adjustment 17 sometime in early May.
Janice M. Plante
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