NEW ENGLAND FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL FALL 2002
Heading Toward Recovery REBUILDING NEW ENGLAND’S FISHERIES MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
“ Those same stocks, collectively, have nearly tripled in biomass since 1994.”
Federal fisheries management programs in New England continue to demonstrate measurable and substantial success in building sustainable fisheries. While the New England Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service will likely address many more important and controversial issues as efforts continue, I am very pleased to deliver this report on our programs, the improvements achieved to date and the challenges ahead.
The Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery Management Plan, an important example of significant progress, covers 15 species and 24 stocks of finfish that range from Maine to the Mid-Atlantic. Landings of the major species managed under the plan totaled 111 million pounds and were worth about $103 million in 2001, a 20 percent increase in landings and 10 percent increase in revenues over the previous year. Those same stocks, collectively, have nearly tripled in biomass since 1994.
Additionally, the scallop resource on Georges Bank and in the Mid-Atlantic region has not only increased dramatically in recent years, but is at record high levels and considered fully rebuilt. In announcing that the port of New Bedford, MA retained first place in accounting for the greatest share of ex-vessel (dockside) revenues in the Northeast, the Department of Commerce noted, “the continuing increase in value of New Bedford landings for the second year was due to sea scallops holding steady ($81 million in 2001 compared with $83 million in 2000) and an increase in landings of Atlantic cod, yellowtail and winter flounder due to improving groundfish stocks.”
Georges Bank yellowtail flounder, winter flounder, whiting, and herring, have now been or are nearly rebuilt to sustainable levels. Georges Bank and Gulf of Maine haddock are showing remarkable progress toward rebuilding. Even Gulf of Maine cod, while not yet rebuilt, is approaching levels not seen for over fifteen years. Clearly our experience shows that if we effectively manage our valuable fishery resources, they will rebuild quickly. Our experience also shows that the social and economic problems associated with continued overfishing and low stock levels have long-lasting impacts.
1 The Council faces enormous challenges as it attempts to ensure a fair hearing to all parties while continuing to meet the mandates of the Sustainable Fisheries Act. Fisheries management involves the consideration of biological, social and economic information, habitat concerns, budget constraints, agency and legal requirements, politics, and competing public perspectives. Every interested party that participates in fisheries management argues that their perspective is the most important. Some argue that it is more important to address the economic concerns of fishing communities. Others believe it is more important to protect habitat or meet a strict rebuilding time deadline. Balancing these competing viewpoints and analyzing the tradeoffs between them is increasingly difficult.
The recent National Marine Fisheries Service research trawl survey problems constitute a huge challenge, but provide the agency and their scientists with an outstanding opportunity to build a strong relationship with the fishing industry. Transparency and collaboration coupled with better education and outreach will lead to improved scientific information in terms of quality, quantity, and timeliness. Our goal is industry ownership and acceptance of the science. This can lead to better participation in the Council process and a better understanding of the basis for management actions.
The intent of the Council system is to maximize public participation in the management of a public resource. It was established as the forum to address the need for coordination and to carefully consider an array of complicated issues and competing interests. Stewardship, accountability, innovation and partnerships are most likely to develop using the Council process, which provides for transparency and stakeholder input at all levels of fishery management plan development.
In closing, we must not let our successes become a wasted effort. We must work together to resolve the serious scientific dilemma we now face, so that we can achieve what we all should want – healthy fish stocks and healthy fishing communities.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Howard Executive Director
2 FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLANS
“ Very recent scientific information on stock status continues to support this significant upward #1 biomass trend.” #2 PHOTO: #1 & #2 by: Barry Gibson GROUNDFISH FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLAN The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) has developed nine fishery management plans (FMPs) to date. Eight FMPs, for Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish), Scallop, Monkfish, Herring, Small Mesh Multispecies, Red Crab, Spiny Dogfish and Atlantic Salmon, have been implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service. The Northeast Skate Complex FMP is under development. The New England Council has the lead in preparing the Monkfish Plan jointly with the Mid-Atlantic Council (MAFMC). The MAFMC leads in preparation of measures for the joint Spiny Dogfish FMP. The Atlantic Salmon Plan prohibits possession of this species and any directed or incidental (bycatch) commercial fishery in federal waters. Perhaps the fishery that most embodies New England’s fishing heritage is its groundfish fishery. Today the management of groundfish represents some of the Council’s greatest challenges. After a significant and rapid decline in overall abundance in the 1960s, improvements in the 80s, and a drop early in the 1990s, the resource is rebounding. Lower exploitation rates, the result of Council management beginning with Amendment 7 to the Groundfish Fishery Management Plan, combined with improved recruitment have produced substantial gains, but in particular for Georges Bank haddock and yellowtail flounder, redfish, silver hake in the Gulf of Maine and witch flounder. Very recent scientific information on stock status continues to support this significant upward biomass trend. Even under the existing Groundfish Plan biological reference points (values for variables that describe the state of a fishery and are used to evaluate its status), five indicator stocks of cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder are about 60 percent of their total sustainable biomass. Amendment 13, now in progress, should enhance these results.
3 Despite this remarkable progress, and to the disappointment of both the fishing industry and Council members, revised biological reference points updated this spring by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in response to the successful lawsuit, Conservation Law Foundation et al. v. Evans et al., demonstrate these same stocks are only about 30 percent of their sustainable biomass. Notwithstanding this most recent information, the groundfish complex increased by more than 150 percent between 1994 and 2001. As the Council works toward the deadline to comply with the court’s order to address stock rebuilding within the mandated timeframes of the Sustainable Fisheries Act and reduce bycatch, it will continue to tackle these and other serious and controversial issues.
CAPACITY The use of days-at-sea represents a particular HABITAT AND BYCATCH challenge. Approximately 140,000 days-at-sea are PROGRESS ON IMPORTANT ISSUES currently allocated to fishermen pursuing groundfish. In 1997 groundfish fishing effort was reduced by Slightly less than one-half, or about 60,000 of those 50 percent. Today, the average groundfish trawler days, are currently being used. As stocks rebuild, more is allowed about 70 days a year to fish on those of the unused days are being activated, potentially stocks and a scallop dredge vessel is authorized to fish for 120 days. jeopardizing the hard-won gains of the past several years. The New England Council has developed Roughly 30 percent (6,600 square miles) of Georges Bank is locked up within three large several very controversial alternatives to match closed areas in which all bottom-tending mobile sustainable harvest levels with allocations of fishing fishing gear is prohibited. In fact, the total square miles closed to trawl gear in New England is days and will propose capacity reduction measures in about the size of Massachusetts. the Groundfish Plan amendment under development. On the basis of a habitat risk assessment prepared by the Council, vessels were allowed BYCATCH temporary access to these closed areas to As the court case recognized, the Council also must harvest an abundant sea scallop resource, do more to address the issue of bycatch, or more but only in places determined to be the least sensitive to the impacts of dredge gear. correctly “discards”, fish that are caught but not kept. About 1,700 square miles of the Gulf of Maine As nearly all parties acknowledge, the collection of are closed to most types of bottom tending mobile accurate data is key to evaluating and resolving the fishing gear. In addition, the waters near many problem. The Council is committed to redoubling its New England ports are closed to fishing for up to six months of the year. efforts with NMFS and the fishing industry to reduce discards. Increased observer coverage is the most Trawl vessels in the region use the largest mesh in the world to reduce catches of juvenile fish. obvious, but also the most costly tool to employ. Roller and rockhopper gear larger than 12 inches Other remedies, some of which have already in diameter is prohibited in some of the most worked successfully in New England, will be used sensitive inshore habitat in the Gulf of Maine. to address this challenge. Collaborative research The Council and NMFS outlawed “streetsweeper projects are underway to explore conservation gear” in 1998. engineering solutions. These include trials using a An eight-inch twine top requirement on all scallop separator panel in trawl nets to allow the escapement dredges has reduced the bycatch of groundfish of certain finfish species, cod end mesh size during scallop fishing. selectivity experiments, and further investigations The raised footrope trawl has allowed the Massachusetts whiting fishery to avoid taking into gear that would reduce the likelihood of right cod as a bycatch. whale entanglements in fixed gear.
4 FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLANS
“ The Case of the Scallop Fishery: How a Rebuilt Fishery Has Benefited Consumers and Producers”
SCALLOP FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLAN Fishery resource conservation and consequent increases in landings to sustainable levels benefit both fishermen and consumers. Consumers gain from lower prices and an increase in the amount of fish available for consumption while producers gain from lower costs and larger harvests made possible by increased productivity of the resource. The scallop fishery provides an excellent example of this scenario. High fishing effort and unsustainable landings during the period 1987 to 1992 resulted in a continuous decline of scallop landings over the next five years. By 1998 landings were 12.5 million pounds, the lowest level in a decade. Fleet revenues declined to $76 million in the same year even though the price to the vessel averaged $6.20 per pound, much more than today’s levels. The resource rebounded as a result of a number of circumstances affecting the fishery: in 1994 scallop vessels were excluded from several highly productive areas on Georges Bank to protect overfished groundfish stocks, resulting in large concentrations of scallops within the closed areas; the Atlantic Sea Scallop FMP required significant reductions in fishing effort; and an extraordinary abundance of spawning age scallops appeared over the course of several years. Scallop landings increased dramatically to more than 22 million pounds in 1999 and to over 32 million in 2000. The scallop harvest reached record levels in 2001 with 44 million pounds in landings. The overall effect was an increase in benefits to both producers and consumers. Fleet revenues more than doubled in 2001, increasing to $165 million in current dollars, despite a 40 percent decrease in scallop prices from 1998 levels. The average annual price to the vessel declined to $3.73 per pound in 2001, the lowest level in the last 10 years. Since at least a part of this decline was passed on to consumers in the form of lower retail prices, however, consumers benefited by spending less for the same amount of scallops purchased.
5 The scallop industry also benefited from lower fishing costs. The yield per day-at-sea improved dramatically from approximately 450 pounds per day-at-sea in 1994 to more than 1,200 pounds per day-at-sea in the 2001 fishing year, significantly lowering the vessel operational costs (such as fuel, oil, water, ice and food) per pound of scallops. This decline in operational expenses, combined with an increase in revenues, benefited scallop fishermen by increasing their surplus, i.e., the sum of their profits and crew shares. The increase in the abundance of the scallop resource and productivity as reflected by the higher yield-per-day-at-sea (and lower price per pound) also helped to increase the competitiveness of the domestic scallop industry relative to the scallop imports from foreign countries. The import prices for scallops declined from an average $5.96 per pound during the early 1980’s to below $4.00 per pound after 1992 as several countries competed to increase their exports to the U.S. market.
SCALLOP ABUNDANCE
10.0
) Georges Bank 9.0 GEORGES BANK Bmsy TOW / 8.0 Mid-Atlantic KG ( 7.0
6.0
5.0 MID-ATLANTIC Bmsy 4.0
3.0
2.0 ABUNDANCE INDEX
1.0
0 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
The scallop resource on Georges Bank and in the Mid-Atlantic region has not only increased dramatically in recent years, but is at record high levels and is considered fully rebuilt.
In 2001, the average import price of scallops declined to $3.25 per pound. The increase in the productivity of the scallop resource and landings helped the domestic industry to lower its prices and increase its share of the overall scallop market despite the influx of cheaper imports. For example, the importing of scallops to the U.S. declined to 40 million pounds in 2001 from 54 million pounds in 2000, whereas the share of the domestic scallops in total supply (i.e., domestic landings plus imports) increased from 37 percent in 2000 to 53 percent in 2001.
6 BIOMASS STOCKS 1989 — 2001
BIOMASS OF 12 MULTISPEC Twelve commercially and recreationally important groundfish spe
500,000
450,000 REDFISH GOM COD
WHITE HAKE CAPE COD YELLOWTAIL 400,000 SNE WINTER FL SNE YELLOWTAIL
GB WINTER FL GB YELLOWTAIL 350,000 PLAICE SSB GB HADDOCK SSB
WITCH GB COD
300,000 SNE = Southern New England SSB = Spawning Stock Biomass GB = Georges Bank (MT)
250,000 IOMASS B 200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
7 0 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 CIES STOCKS 1989 — 2001 cies have, collectively, more than tripled in biomass since 1994.
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 8 FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLANS
“ More recent NMFS trawl surveys have enabled the agency to declare the northern stock of monkfish no longer overfished.”
MONKFISH FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLAN A Monkfish Fishery Management Plan, developed jointly with the Mid-Atlantic Council, was implemented by the National Marine Fisheries Service in late 1999. The FMP specified a four-year phase-in of management measures to reduce fishing effort and rebuild stocks within ten years or less. Measures in the fourth year would eliminate the directed fishery and reduce incidental catch limits in other fisheries unless modified by findings during a scheduled third year comprehensive review. Following analysis of the most recent information considered during that review, it became apparent to scientists, managers and fishermen that the plan had already begun to produce positive results. Information available to the Councils during the review suggested that fishing mortality rates had declined to near or below the overfishing threshold, that stock biomass had stabilized in the south and increased in the north and that exploitation indices showed an overall decline, despite year to year variations. These conclusions were based in large part on a recent stock assessment and data collected from a highly successful cooperative research program conducted by commercial MONKFISH RELATIVE EXPLOITATION INDEX: monkfish vessels and NMFS scientists. LANDINGS/FALL SURVEY KG/TOW (>43 CM) 160 South 25 Accordingly, the Councils recommended delaying North 20 the default management measures for one year 120 ORTH so they could adjust the management plan OUTH 15 XPLOITATION XPLOITATION -S
80 -N E through an amendment. In order to incorporate 10 E
new biological reference points (values for NDEX 40 NDEX I 5 I variables that describe the state of a fishery and ELATIVE ELATIVE 0 0 R R are used to evaluate its status), and implement 95-96 96-97 97-98 98-99 99-00 00-01 01-02 the Councils recommendation by the start of the FISHING YEAR IS FROM MAY — APRIL fishing year on May 1, 2002, NMFS took emergency action. In assessing the impacts of the emergency action this spring, NMFS confirmed that the condition of the monkfish stock has improved, that fishing removals are declining and target harvest rates and associated management measures would end overfishing and continue stock rebuilding. More recent NMFS trawl surveys have enabled the agency to declare the northern stock of monkfish no longer overfished. Both northern and southern stocks, however, still need to grow significantly before they can be declared fully rebuilt. To that end, and to replace the emergency action, the Councils continue to monitor the stock status and are making appropriate changes to the current management plan.
9 HERRING FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLAN The Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan was implemented in December 2000. The FMP defines overfishing, establishes permit and reporting requirements for vessels, operators, dealers, and processors, limits the size of certain vessels and adopts annual specifications for the fishery. It also creates a procedure for annual adjustments to the FMP through a framework adjustment process similar to that used in other New England Council FMPs. Fishing mortality is controlled by distributing an annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC) to four management areas, both to protect various spawning components and to encourage the development of the offshore fishery. When projections show that 95 percent of the TAC in an area will be caught, the area is closed to directed herring fishing and the remaining five percent is set aside to allow the incidental catch of herring in other fisheries. Once overfished by foreign factory trawlers to the point of stock collapse in the 1960s and 1970s, herring biomass began to increase substantially during the mid-1980s. A stock assessment completed in 1998 estimated total biomass at 2.9 million metric tons or 6.6 billion pounds. The 2003 level of harvest through the TACs is set at 250 metric tons or about 551 million pounds — a little more than one-tenth of the current biomass. After examining landings information and National Marine Fisheries Service trawl survey data, the Herring Plan Development Team recently concluded that fishing mortality remains low and current biomass is very high and above Bmsy, or the long-term average stock biomass level required to achieve maximum sustainable yield. Although herring is an abundant resource, the Council will continue to closely monitor stock status. A new coordinated herring assessment to be completed in cooperation with the Canadians is scheduled for release in early 2003. Over the next year, the Council also will consider an industry initiative for a limited entry/controlled access program for this fishery.
SMALL MESH MULTISPECIES FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLAN Implementation of Amendment 12 to the Groundfish FMP in early 2000 represented the first comprehensive approach taken by the Council to manage “small mesh multispecies” in the Northeast — two stocks of whiting
(silver hake), two stocks of red hake and SURVEY ABUNDANCE OF WHITING 1982 — 2001 one stock of offshore hake. While 25 Southern Whiting Fall Survey Northern Whiting Fall Survey Amendment 12 initiated management 25 20 MSY B of offshore hake, whiting and red hake 20 HRESHOLD KG/TOW) had been previously regulated under the
15 B T 15 EAN
FMP for almost 10 years. Both species, (M GGREGATE however, required further protection to 10 10 A
5 GGREGATE expedite recovery, promote rebuilding 5 A and maintain a sustainable fishery. 0 ALL SURVEY
F 0 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 — YEAR —
10 FISHERY MANAGEMENT PLANS
SURVEY ABUNDANCE OF RED HAKE 1982 — 2001
10 Southern Red Hake Fall Survey 9 Northern Red Hake Fall Survey 8 “ Two of these stocks, northern MSY VALUE KG/TOW) 7 B 6 HRESHOLD whiting and northern red hake, EAN
5 B T (M
4 ORTHERN are considered “rebuilt” and are N 3
2 ORTHERN well above their biomass targets. N ” 1 ALL SURVEY
F 0 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 — YEAR —
The rebuilding program to accomplish these goals was evaluated in year three of plan implementation by the Whiting Monitoring Committee, an independent team of state and federal biologists, resource managers, social scientists and fishing industry representatives. The committee, established and charged by the Council to track progress on meeting the goals of the FMP, released their results in fall 2002: