Council Votes to Re-open Georges Bank to Groundfishing

Newport, RI, June 16 – The New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) voted to re-open a large area of Georges Bank, of more than 5,000 square miles, that has been closed for 21 years.

There has been a decade-long debate over whether the habitat closures were properly located or even necessary. Lobstermen were opposed to re-opening the area because they said scallop and groundfish drag gear might threaten the large female egg-bearing lobster population there. These female lobsters help sustain the lobster fishery in the region.

“It’s a very controlled opening,” said Portsmouth, N.H., veteran fisherman Dave Goethel. NEFMC said scallopers will be able to fish old scallop beds. Most of the closed area is sand bottom. The plan would not include cod, except as bycatch.

The area was closed after a reauthorized Magnuson Stevens Act called for habitat-based closures in 1996. Today, said Goethel, the science and mapping is good, but in 1996 there was almost none. NEFMC needed a habitat area to close, so they picked that part of Georges Bank, according to Goethel.

Peter Shelley, senior counsel and interim president with the environmental group Conservation Law Foundation, called the re-opening “disastrous.” Gib Brogan, a fisheries campaign manager with the environmental group Oceana, accused the council of taking short-term profits ahead of the needs of depleted fish stocks.

Fishermen said they are seeing large numbers of fish, in particular haddock and flounder. Goethel said he caught his flounder quota in 28 hours. Regarding Shelley’s disaster comment, Goethel said, “The man wants to close the whole ocean. The science and mapping today is very good. The area on Georges was not great habitat. When the science supports the fishermen, the environmentalists say the science is wrong.”

Goethel criticized the environmental groups, saying they push for square miles of closed area. But, he said, that is not a valid metric. According to Goethel, NEFMC is required by law to protect habitat as best as reasonably possible. He said there are areas with more important habitat. Their value is in content, not square miles, he said.

Goethel is a marine biologist and spent nine years on the NEFMC habitat committee. Throughout that period, scientists were developing a model to assess the enormously complex seabed, including physiological and biological values. Goethel said the Swept Area Seabed Impact (SASI) model has enabled more accurate evaluation of habitats in recent years. The SASI model has shown that, in some areas, there is no need to close the amount of area closed, and that other areas need not be closed at all, said Goethel.

Goethel said the refined assessment enables scientists to define and locate important essential fish habitat based on value rather than random selection.

The vote is just the start of the process to re-open part of the closed area on Georges Bank. The government has to approve all, some or none of the decision. Goethel said, “It could be as much as a year before the re-opening is a done deal.”