Sectors, the catch share management system adopted in New England, have opened up the door to groundfishing in Down East Maine. According to the Bar Harbor Times, until sectors came into effect May 1, it had been more than 15 years since groundfish had been caught and landed in commercial numbers in the eastern Gulf of Maine. The article tells one fisherman’s story of how sectors have allowed him to get back into the groundfishing industry.
Click here to view the full letter.
As the BP-Deepwater Horizon Oil Well Disaster continues to spill massive amounts of oil into the ocean—jeopardizing the multi-billion dollar fishing, tourism and other ocean-related industries in the Gulf—EDF is partnering with Gulf fishing organizations to recommend several urgent initiatives to mitigate the devastating ecological and economic consequences for the Gulf region and beyond.
The Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance and the Gulf Fishermen’s Association joined us in signing a letter that is being distributed today to Congress and the President to provide guidance for responding to the growing crisis.
In the letter, we advocate for at least $100 million in funding for direct assistance to adversely affected commercial and recreational fishermen and fishing communities, to improve fisheries science, and to make fisheries more resilient to harm caused by human activities.
First and foremost, we urge BP and its business partners, Congress, and the Administration to ensure that all possible means are applied to regain control of the oil well, ensure that the dispersants used are the safest and most effective available, and that damages are cleaned-up as quickly as possible.
Once the spill is stopped, the short- and long-term measures below are needed to begin the long process of helping ocean resources and coastal communities recover.
Short-term: Institute a fishing community recovery program.
Long-term: Increase fishery and community resilience through better science and management.
Never miss a post! Subscribe to EDFish via a email or a feed reader.
The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has put fishery closures in the headlines, but closures are nothing new or unusual. In fact, numerous fisheries are closed every year. In an era of declining fish stocks, managers essentially have two tools at hand to meet the legal requirement of ending overfishing and rebuilding stocks – closures or catch shares. Closures have been used extensively and increasingly.
In the last two years, nearly half of US federal fishery management plans (FMPs) have used emergency closures as a way to manage fishing effort. Closures prohibit fishermen from catching and landing species based on either area or time. For example, managers may close an area of fishing grounds or an entire fishery for a particular period of time.
Emergency closures can affect all sectors of a fishery or may be focused on just one sector, such as recreational or commercial. Often multiple types of closures–area, season and sector—are used to manage effort.
Closures, as described here, are being used on an emergency basis to control fishing effort. Often, closures occur within a single year as a way to prevent fishermen from exceeding annual catch limits. In instances where a species is at a critically low level, managers may close a fishery indefinitely.
Note: There are times in which managers used planned closures to enhance the management of a fishery, such as closing certain areas or times to protect spawning aggregations. These planned closures are not included in my discussion here. Instead, this analysis focuses on unplanned closures that are used to manage fishing effort.
4,200 days – Number of fishing days lost in 2009 due to early season closures.
This is equivalent to 11½ years! If early and indefinite season closures had not occurred in 2009, fishermen would have been able to fish over 9,700 days in those fisheries. Instead, only about 5,500 days were open to fishermen for the affected species. And the story in 2008 was similar – fishermen lost 5,000 days of fishing, down from over 9,900 that would have been possible without early or indefinite closures.
The pattern in 2010 is continuing – 20 species managed under three FMPs have used early season closures from January to May, including an emergency closure in the commercial and recreational sectors of the Red Snapper Fishery in the South Atlantic Region. Implementation of this closure has estimates of a $1.8 million loss for the commercial and recreational fleets. The fishery is slated to open on June 2, 2010, but managers may extend the closure for another 186 day period.
Fishing businesses across the Gulf, such as these charter boats in Alabama, are facing major economic challenges from the oil spill.
Yesterday U.S. Senator Shelby requested a Gulf of Mexico fisheries disaster declaration from the Secretary of Commerce in the face of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
EDF fully supports this action and encourages U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke to grant the request.
The Gulf coast economy is closely tied to the well-being of its oceans. The uncontrolled oil spill severely threatens ecosystems and, by extension, the Gulf’s multi-billion dollar fishing and tourism industries.
By granting Senator Shelby’s request, Secretary Locke can help provide much needed federal assistance to affected Gulf fishermen and fishing communities.
Never miss a post! Subscribe to EDFish via a email or a feed reader.
A recent op-ed by Chris Conklin in The Sun News of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, voiced frustration over the cascading closures now hitting the Southeast. Conklin comes from a fishing family and wonders if he’ll be able to stay in the fishing industry unless catch shares are instituted. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council is considering a number of options – including catch shares – to reduce fishing closures and get fishermen back on the water.
Conklin points to the success of the red snapper catch share in the Gulf of Mexico. Not too long ago, Gulf red snapper fishermen were in a similar situation to fishermen in the Southeast. Now, they are now enjoying the third successful year of a catch share. They have a year-round season and dockside prices are higher. These fishermen will likely receive more fish this year because fish population rebuilding is going so well.
Even as Gulf commercial fishermen deal with the worsening oil spill, the flexibility they have to fish throughout the year lets them plan their businesses in the face of natural or man-made problems better than those not under a catch share.
Never miss a post! Subscribe to EDFish via a email or a feed reader.
Julie Wormser, New England and Mid-Atlantic Regional Director for EDF Oceans program.
New England groundfish sectors, a kind of a catch share management system, are entering their third week of operation. It’s far too early to pass judgment, but here’s what we’re watching for:
1) The ability of individual fishermen to maximize their profits and minimize their costs, and
2) The total 2010 harvest of groundfish compared to annual catch limits (ACLs).
An article from SeafoodNews.com that we cited last week discussed these two measures, but was criticized for comparing the first week of landings versus last year’s harvest. However, since fishermen fishing under sectors no longer have any time constraints to their harvests, weekly landings are not a meaningful measure of success or failure.
More important and interesting were the article’s insights into fishermen’s ability to selectively harvest strong stocks and avoid weak stocks, and fishermen’s ability to maximize catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) by landing all legal species that they catch rather than being required to dump good fish overboard.
A key way fishermen are successfully avoiding weak stocks is through their knowledge of fish behavior and life cycles and through the use of conservation gear such as the Ruhle trawl.
Using this gear, one fisherman in the Rhode Island sector reported landing 8,500 lbs of haddock and only 120 lbs of cod and 140 lbs of yellowtail on a one-day trip to Georges Bank. That’s a strong stock/weak stock ratio of between 60 and 70 to one. He said it was the best day of fishing he had had in years.
Another vessel fishing on Georges Bank, as reported in the SeafoodNews.com article, reported a strong stock to weak stock harvesting ratio of 140:1 haddock to yellowtail and 25:1 haddock to Georges Bank cod.
Finally, the SeafoodNews.com article reported a six-figure harvest in one trip by one New Bedford sector vessel; we have heard about several others of the same magnitude.
Unquestionably the fact that sectors are being implemented at a time of low catch limits is causing a great deal of stress for a significant number of groundfish fishermen. It is all the more impressive and hopeful to see these kinds of conservation and business benefits emerging so soon under the new system.
Never miss a post! Subscribe to EDFish via a email or a feed reader.
