Atlanc cod, Atlanc pollock and Haddock Gadus morhua, Pollachius virens, Melanogrammus aeglefinus © Scandanavian Fishing Yearbook/www.scandposters.com United States: Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine Large mesh boom trawl, Large mesh boom gillnet, Handline, Boom longlines October 3, 2016 Neosha Kashef, Consulng Researcher & Sam Wilding, Seafood Watch Staff Disclaimer Seafood Watch® strives to have all Seafood Reports reviewed for accuracy and completeness by external sciensts with experse in ecology, fisheries science and aquaculture. Scienfic review, however, does not constute an endorsement of the Seafood Watch® program or its recommendaons on the part of the reviewing sciensts. Seafood Watch® is solely responsible for the conclusions reached in this report. Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 About Seafood Watch 3 Guiding Principles 4 Summary 5 Final Seafood Recommendations 6 Introduction 9 Assessment 14 Criterion 1: Impacts on the species under assessment 14 Criterion 2: Impacts on other species 25 Criterion 3: Management Effectiveness 62 Criterion 4: Impacts on the habitat and ecosystem 76 Acknowledgements 84 References 85 Appendix A: Extra By Catch Species 89 Appendix B: Harbor Porpoise Take Reduction Plan 146 Appendix C: Update Summary 148 2 About Seafood Watch Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch® program evaluates the ecological sustainability of wild-caught and farmed seafood commonly found in the United States marketplace. Seafood Watch® defines sustainable seafood as originang from sources, whether wild-caught or farmed, which can maintain or increase producon in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or funcon of affected ecosystems. Seafood Watch® makes its science-based recommendaons available to the public in the form of regional pocket guides that can be downloaded from www.seafoodwatch.org. The program’s goals are to raise awareness of important ocean conservaon issues and empower seafood consumers and businesses to make choices for healthy oceans. Each sustainability recommendaon on the regional pocket guides is supported by a Seafood Report. Each report synthesizes and analyzes the most current ecological, fisheries and ecosystem science on a species, then evaluates this informaon against the program’s conservaon ethic to arrive at a recommendaon of “Best Choices,” “Good Alternaves” or “Avoid.” The detailed evaluaon methodology is available upon request. In producing the Seafood Reports, Seafood Watch® seeks out research published in academic, peer-reviewed journals whenever possible. Other sources of informaon include government technical publicaons, fishery management plans and supporng documents, and other scienfic reviews of ecological sustainability. Seafood Watch® Research Analysts also communicate regularly with ecologists, fisheries and aquaculture sciensts, and members of industry and conservaon organizaons when evaluang fisheries and aquaculture pracces. Capture fisheries and aquaculture pracces are highly dynamic; as the scienfic informaon on each species changes, Seafood Watch®’s sustainability recommendaons and the underlying Seafood Reports will be updated to reflect these changes. Pares interested in capture fisheries, aquaculture pracces and the sustainability of ocean ecosystems are welcome to use Seafood Reports in any way they find useful. For more informaon about Seafood Watch® and Seafood Reports, please contact the Seafood Watch® program at Monterey Bay Aquarium by calling 1-877- 229-9990. 3 Guiding Principles Seafood Watch defines sustainable seafood as originang from sources, whether fished1 or farmed, that can maintain or increase producon in the long-term without jeopardizing the structure or funcon of affected ecosystems. Based on this principle, Seafood Watch had developed four sustainability criteria for evaluang wildcatch fisheries for consumers and businesses. These criteria are: How does fishing affect the species under assessment? How does the fishing affect other, target and non-target species? How effecve is the fishery’s management? How does the fishing affect habitats and the stability of the ecosystem? Each criterion includes: Factors to evaluate and score Guidelines for integrang these factors to produce a numerical score and rang Once a rang has been assigned to each criterion, we develop an overall recommendaon. Criteria rangs and the overall recommendaon are color-coded to correspond to the categories on the Seafood Watch pocket guide and online guide: Best Choice/Green: Are well managed and caught in ways that cause lile harm to habitats or other wildlife. Good Alternave/Yellow: Buy, but be aware there are concerns with how they’re caught. Avoid/Red Take a pass on these for now. These items are overfished or caught in ways that harm other marine life or the environment. 1 “Fish” is used throughout this document to refer to finfish, shellfish and other invertebrates 4 Summary The following Seafood Watch report provides recommendaons for Atlanc cod (Gadus morhua), haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), and pollock (Pollachius virens) caught in the Northwest Atlanc by U.S fishing vessels. The three species inhabit similar habitats, have similar natural ranges, and are caught in mixed fisheries using a variety of methods including boom trawls, sink gillnets, boom longlines, and rod and line that will be covered by this report. The fisheries that capture cod, haddock, and pollock in the Northwest Atlanc are managed by the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) under the Mulspecies Fishery Management Plan. Cod, haddock, and pollock have a high inherent vulnerability to fishing pressure. There are two separate stocks of cod and haddock in the U.S. Northwest Atlanc: Georges Bank and the Gulf of Maine. Cod abundances on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine are in an overfished state and of high conservaon concern. Fishing pressure on both stocks by all fishing gears is too high. Haddock stocks are healthier and have fully rebuilt on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. Georges Bank haddock is fished at a sustainable level, and fishing pressure in the Gulf of Maine has reduced to sustainable levels. Pollock abundance in the Northwest Atlanc is healthy and is being fished at a sustainable level. The handline fisheries in the Northwest Atlanc are relavely selecve, with no species of concern caught other than the target species (typically cod). Boom trawl fisheries in the Northwest Atlanc catch a variety of species, including commercially important fish and marine mammals. Of greatest concern in the boom trawl fisheries for cod, haddock, and pollock is the bycatch of yellowtail flounder, which is overfished and experiencing overfishing on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. Boom gillnet fisheries catch a variety of species, including a number of marine mammals; of greatest concern is the North Atlanc right whale, which is listed as "Endangered" by the Internaonal Union for the Conservaon of Nature (IUCN) and is being negavely affected by fishing acvies in the region. Boom longline fisheries are relavely selecve compared to the trawl and gillnet fisheries, but there is sll a high level of concern regarding bycatch of skate species. Boom trawls have a discard rate of 48% in the region, with gillnets and longlines each having a discard rate of 28%, and handline having a discard rate of 8% (most of which is undersized cod). The NEFMC manages the groundfish fishery through a collecve Fishery Management Plan (FMP) that covers 20 stocks from 13 species. Grouping species together allows NEFMC to manage these mixed fisheries more effecvely than if individual species FMPs were used. Because of the historical exploitaon that the stocks have been exposed to, a number of stocks are depleted or in a state of rebuilding. NEFMC has recently introduced a new management system that should improve the rate of recovery of stocks. There is a considerable effort to collect data in these fisheries through logbooks and observer coverage; the data (along with fishery- independent data) guide stock assessments. NEFMC take into account the scienfic informaon provided by stock assessments on the majority of occasions; however, in some instances, total allowable catches (TACs) have been set too high in response to social and economic need. There are a number of regulaons in place that require fisheries managers to reduce the impacts of fishing acvies on nontarget populaons. Reporng of bycatch creates an incenve for reducon efforts while providing data for scienfic research and stock assessments. The observer program provides considerable data to aid in stock assessments of target and bycatch species. Enforcement is generally good, but enforcement of regulaons concerning the use of pingers in gillnet fisheries could be improved. The majority of the groundfish fishery takes place in water less than 100 m deep over sand and sand-silt habitats; gravel habitats affected by the fishery occur in waters less than 60 m deep. Habitat impacts are a moderate conservaon concern for boom trawl fisheries, a low conservaon concern for boom gillnet and boom longline fisheries, and a very low concern for handline fisheries. There is a minimal level of migaon measures in place in the form of a number of permanent closed areas to protect essenal fish habitat from boom trawls, and in other temporary and permanent closures that offer some protecon from all gears (but these are not designated specifically for habitat protecon and may not protect the most vulnerable of habitats). Ecosystem-based management is currently being developed for the groundfish fishery in the Northwest