The primary need for Amendment 15 (A15) is to bring the scallop plan in compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which was reauthorized in 2007 and included several new legal requirements. The act requires fisheries to use annual catch limits to prevent overfishing, including measures to ensure accountability. The plan is required to be compliant with the new regulations by 2011 since the stock is not subject to overfishing. A15 has a number of other purposes: • It addresses excess capacity in the limited access scallop fishery and provides more flexibility for efficient utilization of the resource. • It considers measures that will adjust the current overfishing definition to average fishing mortality over time and not space. • It considers minor adjustments to the recently implemented limited access general category management program, including an allowance of individual fishing quota (IFQ) rollover; allocation of area specific individual fishing quotas; a specific general category sector application; modifications to the general category possession limit; and adjusting the restriction on maximum quota per fishing platform from 2 percent to 2.5 percent of the total general category allocation. • It considers measures to address the essential fish habitat closed areas under the scallop plan if Phase II of the EFH Amendment is delayed. • And it considers measures to change the scallop fishing year because it is currently out of sync with the framework adjustment process and the timing of when scallop survey data are available for management decisions. A15 is considering changing the start of the fishing year from March 1 to May 1. NEFMC had already approved most of A15 at its February meeting, but had three outstanding issues to hash out – specifications for accountability measures, potential fishery spillover into other fisheries as a result of leasing scallop days-at-sea and/or access area trips (ACT), and a limited access general category (LAGC) permit-splitting alternative. NEFMC adopted several motions related to the accountability measure alternatives for different components of the fishery, as well as several alternatives for a sub-annual catch of yellowtail flounder. Members also voted to omit alternatives that would limit fishing in other fisheries, but left in others that would allow a scallop vessel to transfer some or all quota to another LAGC vessel. NEFMC established separate annual catch targets for the limited access and limited access general category IFQ fisheries; corrective accountability measures would apply only if the respective annual catch limits (ACL) are exceeded. Separate ACTs were established to account for the different level of risk of each component of the fishery exceeding the ACL, since the LA fishery is managed through the days-at-sea system, whereas the LAGC fishery is managed through the quota system. The ACLs are set at 90 percent, with a 10 percent reduction due to management uncertainty, primarily related to open area effort. For the general category fishery, NEFMC agreed to an accountability measure that would hold individuals responsible for exceeding their IFQ; overages would carry over into the next fishing year. For the limited access fishery, the primary accountability measures is the use of the annual catch target. The 10 percent buffer between the annual catch limit and the annual catch target would act as a proactive in-season accountability measure. For the Northern Gulf of Maine fishery, the total allowable catch (TAC) already acts as an in-season accountability measure. NEFMC agreed that, if the overall TAC is exceeded, the TAC for the following year could be reduced by that amount mid-season. Accountability measures for the bycatch of yellowtail flounder proved complicated. NEFMC staffers said they feared the prospect of derby fishing with most of the options on the table. These included the seasonal closure of the entire stock area, the seasonal closure of a portion of the area deemed as areas with high bycatch, a shifting of days-at-sea and/or access area trips from one stock area that reached the annual catch limit to another stock area, or the institution of a fleet maximum days-at-sea to be used in the subsequent year should there be an overage of the annual catch limit the previous year. NEFMC agreed to ask their plan development team to develop a fifth option for yellowtail that builds on a fleet maximum and include adjustments in possession limits for access area and adjustments in days-at-sea based on the projected yellowtail annual catch limit, with an effort to minimize derby fisheries. NEFMC decided not to include in A15 an alternative that would try to limit effort in other directed fisheries from vessels that lease days-at-sea or access trips. NEFMC agreed to include an alternative to allow limited access general category IFQ permit owners to permanently transfer some or all quota allocation independent from their IFQ permit to another LAGC IFQ permit holder while retaining the permit itself. They also agreed to include an alternative to allow LAGC IFQ permit owners to permanently transfer some or all quota allocation independent from their IFQ permit to a community-based trust or permit bank, while retaining the permit itself and conversely a permit bank can lease/transfer to any limited access general category IFQ permit holder. Framework 21 is scheduled to be implemented in March 2010, and the action will include specifications for the 2010 scallop fishing year and comply with the first “reasonable and prudent measure” identified in the most recent Turtle Biological Opinion – to limit scallop fishing effort in the Mid-Atlantic when turtles are expected to be present. Modifications to the observer program and adjustments to the access area program to reduce yellowtail flounder bycatch also may be addressed in Framework 21. NEFMC’s final action on FW21 is expected at the September 2009 meeting. |
