Habitat Protections Move Forward

continued from June Homepage

Gloucester, MA. The Lady Jane will be back fishing this season. Captain Russell Sherman has been battered by quota cuts. The catch shares program has driven the price of quota so high that the market price is below the quota price on some species.  

Area and season closures are already in place, or on the horizon, under individual fishery management plans. At its meeting in April, NEFMC decided on final preferred alternatives for most sections of the amendment, and forwarded it to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) as the final decision-maker.

Among its decisions, NEFMC approved Habitat Management Areas (HMAs) for the Gulf of Maine. According to NEFMC, the area defined as the Small Eastern Maine HMA would include a complete restriction on use of mobile bottom-tending gears. (All information in this article regarding the contents of the amendment comes from the NEFMC newsletter following the meeting.)

At a public hearing earlier this year, Maine fishermen and others urged NEFMC to keep in mind the dependence of Maine’s small coastal communities, particularly Downeast, on fishing. There was concern that actions to protect groundfish habitat could evolve in such a way that might jeopardize small-boat fishing. In a letter to NEFMC, Togue Brawn of Maine Dayboat Scallops wrote, “After years of low biomass, the northern Gulf of Maine (NGOM) scallop resource is finally recovering and the fishery is growing, providing a much-needed source of diversification for Maine fishermen. The NGOM resource has always been patchy.

The current Omnibus Habitat Amendment includes closures, some of which are listed as preferred alternatives, that would essentially wipe out the burgeoning NGOM scallop fishery. The Platts Bank closures and Machias Area Closures may seem small when you look at all the areas groundfishermen can go, but they are hugely important to NGOM scallop fishermen, as evidenced by recent VTR [vessel trip report] data. It does not make sense to extinguish a growing, sustainable scallop fishery in a very uncertain attempt to resuscitate the groundfishery. If you must implement closures, please do so in a way that does not so differentially and devastatingly impact NGOM scallop fishermen.”

NEFMC member Mary Beth Tooley, who recused herself from the vote due to a conflict of interest, said she disagreed with an impact assessment that said the impact of eastern GOM designations would not be great.

“To the communities that would be most impacted in downeast Maine, that’s a lot of money,” said Tooley. “To them, this is a tremendous impact. We talk a lot about habitat benefits, but that’s not our only mandate. We need to consider the national standards in total. Our job is to look at all of these and determine what’s practicable. This is not practicable.”

Approved for the Central Gulf of Maine were gear restrictions for the Cashes Ledge, Jeffreys Bank, and Fippennies Ledge HMAs. The Cashes and Jeffreys Bank areas were modified from their previous configurations to focus more closely on shallow, hard bottom habitats. Each would prohibit the use of mobile bottom-tending gears. The Cashes Ledge Closure Area would be maintained as is—off-limits year-round to all fishing activity except charter and party vessels with a letter of authorization; and vessels fishing with “exempted gears” that catch only small amounts of groundfish: spears, rakes, diving gear, cast nets, tongs, harpoons, weirs, dip nets, stop nets, pound nets, pots and traps, surfclam/quahog dredge gear, pelagic hook and line, pelagic longline, single pelagic gillnets, and shrimp trawls In accordance with the current groundfish regulations, mid-water trawl gear, and vessels that are transiting the area with gear that is properly stowed, would be allowed in the Cashes Ledge Closure Area.

Greg Cunningham, of the Conservation Law Foundation, said Cashes Ledge has proven to be a longstanding closure protective of resident cod and a diverse array of other species, as well as a kelp forest, and accomplishing the goals of the habitat amendment.

Vito Giacalone of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, urged NEFMC to take into the consideration the de facto habitat protections accomplished by a reduction in fishing mortality due to a 75 percent reduction in groundfishing days.

Ben Martens, of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, said MCFA preferred the status quo for the central Gulf of Maine. The data is not good enough, he said, to shift the boundaries of areas that have already been closed for a long period of time to good effect. “It’s extremely important” that Cashes Ledge stay closed, Martens said. “There are fish in there that need to be protected. And we don’t trust the science now. There are a lot of cod in the ocean: That suggests the science is lagging. At this point, we think we need buffers to make sure we don’t go in the wrong direction based upon bad science. We think the closed areas provide those buffers to the Gulf of Maine. Now that we’re in allocation, we understand wanting to get away from input controls, but we need better data before we can do that.” Another uncertainty, he said, is the Gulf of Maine’s “dramatically changing ecosystem” due to climate change and ocean acidification. “Closed areas provide a buffer to those changes,” he said. “Considering where the stocks are and the ecosystem is, we can’t make dramatic changes.”

For the Western Gulf of Maine, the scenario adopted took into account existing habitat and groundfish closures. Current fishing restrictions would be maintained, except for an exemption for shrimp trawls from the mobile bottom-tending gear restrictions in the northwestern corner of the area.

The types of areas in the amendment are:
Essential Fish Habitats (EFH) and Habitat Areas of Particular Concern (HAPC). These designations are based on species-specific distributions and life-history information, and are used primarily for analytical approaches in impact analyses and agency consultations.

Drew Minkiewicz, an attorney with the Fisheries Survival Fund, asked NEFMC to review proposed HACP designations. HACPs were originally delineated in 2007. “We have a whole host of information since then that shows maybe these HACPs are not in the right place. It’s been seven years since you’ve discussed these areas,” he said.

But Gibb Brogan, the northeast representative for Oceana, said the rationale behind the proposed HACPs remains supported by more recent analysis. “We believe these areas are better supported now than in 2007,” Brogan said.

Spatial management areas.
These contain habitats of importance to multiple species, are vulnerable to impacts from fishing, and as such, could be subject to gear restrictions for conservation purposes on the basis of gear type.

Three types of spatial management areas are in the amendment—year-round habitat management areas, dedicated habitat research areas, and groundfish seasonal spawning areas.

Groundfish seasonal spawning areas and a Georges Bank Habitat Management Area alternative will be taken up at NEFMC’s June meeting.

According to NEFMC, EFH designations were specified for all managed species and life stages, including a small number of specific modifications. Fishing restrictions are not associated with these areas. The approved HAPC designations involve six nearshore/continental shelf areas, two seamounts, and eleven submarine canyons or groups of canyons. These areas are not subject to gear or other restrictions, but are singled out because they encompass important and sensitive habitats that should receive careful consideration for conservation purposes, NEFMC said.

For the Great South Channel
A new HMA was adopted with a complete restriction on the use of mobile bottom-tending gears in the northeast corner, and a restriction on the use of mobile bottom-tending gears with an exemption for hydraulic clam dredges throughout the remainder of the area. The dredge exemption would sunset one year after the implementation of the amendment. NEFMC also took action in southern New England to create a new HMA near Cox Ledge.

The Stellwagen Dedicated Habitat Research Area (DHRA) in the Gulf of Maine, developed to facilitate fisheries research, was approved. The DHRA would be closed to mobile bottom-tending gear, demersal longlines, and sink gillnets, while recreational vessels, midwater gear and other pelagic gear would be allowed. All of these fishing restrictions are currently in place as a result of the existing Western Gulf of Maine habitat and groundfish closures, which overlap the proposed DHRA.

Also approved was a Georges Bank DHRA. The area would be closed to mobile bottom-tending gear types. This area is currently closed to these gears as a habitat closure.