The NSC, based in Gloucester, Mass., is a group of owners and/or operators of commercial vessels fishing out of ports in the Northeast region, as well as communities and shoreside businesses affected by A13.
   O’Dell said the coalition is “cautiously optimistic” regarding remedies available with the development of Framework 40A and 40B, which address the B day system and special access programs.
   “NSC is pleased NMFS has begun to correct problems seen in the proposed rule and then in the final rule,” she said.
   Some of the corrections unveiled in 40A, she said, include the lifting of haddock day and trip limits for Gulf of Maine (GOM) and Georges Bank (GB), with a total allowable catch (TAC) still in place.
   A transiting provision across Closed Area II (CAII) to allow fishing in both open areas of the TSA area in the same trip was approved.
   “This flexibility is essential for the industry,” O’Dell said, and would also allow fishing in the CAII yellowtail flounder special access program (SAP), starting June 1, as well as the other two areas in the same trip as long as fishing on A class days are enrolled in the SAP.
   The “flounder net” description for the eastern area was changed to allow 12-inch diamond mesh in the top square section of the net instead of 12-inch square mesh, as initially stated by NMFS. And the notification requirement prior to sailing was reduced from five to three days.
   The council approved a four-quarter B-Regular Pilot Program, with 1,000 days allocated for each quarter.
This is essential, she said, because the B program is the core of the plan.
   B days, O’Dell said, balance A13’s severe economic impacts while allowing a measure of economic opportunity as fishermen wait for stocks to rebuild.
   “Currently,” she said, “many stocks are not being fished at their optimum yield. B Day programs allow fishermen to reach the optimum yield on healthy stocks.”
   The pilot is essential, O’Dell said, for getting a handle on the program’s intricacies and providing an opportunity for fishermen to prove the program can work and for managers to collect data needed for the long term.
   Fishermen input on how to use B regular days is crucial, she said.
   “Once you put a fisherman in a box, it’s difficult to get out of the box,” O’Dell said. “The ocean is extremely dynamic; fish move around. If you lay a groundwork that you can use specific days in specific areas, the fish might not be there the next year.”
   NSC, in coordination with Harvard anthropology Ph. D candidate Sarah Robinson, recently received a NMFS Cooperative Research Partners Initiative grant to gather experimental data and socio-economic follow-up in the development of B regular day system.
   Because NMFS is still reviewing Framework 40A and NEFMC has not begun Framework 40B, which has other B reserve special access programs, “a lot is still in the air,” O’Dell said. “Hence, the reason for the NSC filing.”

F/V Jocka in some turbulent waters. Things are not much better on shore for the groundfish industry. Amendment 13 is barely implemented and there is already talk abouit Amendment 14.

Small Boats Suffer Most
   Both NSC and the Trawlers Survival Fund (TSF), based in Fairhaven, Mass., charge A13 impacts small businesses the most.
   Impacts, says TSF, will be especially significant in New Bedford, the nation’s lead port in terms of landed value of fish.
TSF is comprised of owners of New England fishing vessels, many in or near New Bedford, Mass. Members harvest a variety of species, use otter trawl gear — nets towed near and along ocean bottom — and generally travel both inshore and offshore.
   A13, says the TSF filing, “differs so materially from the recommendations emanating from deliberation processes that there has been no legally adequate opportunity for notice and informed comment on what the defendant ultimately promulgated.”
   A13, the TSF filing says, fails to achieve a negotiated combination of two fishing reduction approaches — phased and adaptive — that were “meant to ameliorate, to some extent, the necessity for the deepest initial cuts in DAS, and to help avoid underfishing, in particular, the healthy stocks.”
   The phased approach was also intended to give the New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) time to evaluate controversial rebuilding goals, the filing says.
   The phasing approach was recommended by NEFMC for GB cod and other stocks. Immediate reductions, known as an adaptive strategy, were recommended for other stocks.
   Like the NSC filing, the TSF discusses a number of points currently being addressed through the framework process, including the B-day program and SAPs and A13’s prohibition on mixed-area trips.

Plan Allows More Overfishing
A joint Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) suit says GB cod and several other stocks — American plaice, southern New England/Mid-Atlantic yellowtail flounder, white hake and Cape Cod/Gulf of Maine yellowtail flounder — are imperiled because the plan continues to allow overfishing.
   Oceana says the plan fails to protect essential fish habitat (EFH) for severely depleted juvenile stocks.
Both groups say the plan doesn’t have an adequate bycatch monitoring program, considered essential for minimizing wasteful discards.
   The plan, the CLF filing says, allows GB cod and other species to be fished “far above” levels determined impermissible in a prior court order.
   To achieve fishing mortality targets, A13 relies on an incremental cut in DAS, along with a cut in the amount of GB cod a boat can possess.
   “But even the most recent attempts to reduce mortality on GB cod using these methods have proven anything but fruitful,” CLF says. “For example, in 2002, DAS were reduced by nearly 40 percent, but Georges Bank cod catch actually went up by more than 15 percent.”
   CLF attorney Roger Fleming said this development makes it “difficult to see how Amendment 13’s reliance on another 15-20 percent reduction in fishing days will achieve the nearly 50 percent reduction in catch necessary for GB cod.”
   Under the plan, Fleming said, “overfishing on GB cod will continue for at least five years, despite the fact the stock is at only 15 percent of its healthy and sustainable population level . . . allowing overfishing to continue puts the fishery at risk of collapse — as has occurred with Canadian stocks — and jeopardizes the rebuilding program necessary to reestablish this fishery. Under A13, even if we were to end overfishing right now, GB cod would not be rebuilt to a healthy level until 2026.”
   NEFMC analyst Tom Nies disagreed with CLF’s evaluation.
   There is no doubt the status of GB cod is very poor, Nies said. Recruitment — the number of small fish — has been low in recent years. Before 2001, small increases in stock size were primarily due to growth of existing fish rather than an influx of younger fish through spawning and recruitment. Since then, studies show stock size is not increasing and may be slowly declining, Nies said.
   “Council members are very concerned about GB cod, which is why they adopted measures to achieve a 51 percent reduction in fishing mortality,” said Nies. “We have to reduce fishing mortality — as planned under Amendment 13 — and pray for better recruitment so the stock will rebuild. When we get better recruitment, we will have to be patient and hold mortality low until the stock rebuilds.”
   But CLF’s catch figures seem to be off, Nies said. NEFMC studies show recent U.S. landings for GB cod were 7,617 metric tons (mt) in 2000, 10,635 mt in 2001, 9,100 mt in 2002, and 6,582 mt in 2003.
   “These do not match the argument that GB cod catch increased from 2001 to 2002,” Nies said. “Landings declined by 14.5 percent from 2001 to 2002, and by 38.2 percent from 2001 to 2003.”
   Landings are only part of the picture, Nies said.
   But “there is no reason to suspect that discards would have increased so much that they resulted in an overall increase in catch of 15 percent.”
   CLF charges the plan fails to include information, such as the statistical modeling used by NMFS, necessary for the public to assess how A13 will decrease cod mortality.
   “We don’t agree,” Nies said. A13, he said, describes the application of the closed area model to evaluate impacts of landing limits, DAS reductions, and closed areas, and the impacts of a mesh increase.
   CLF also calls for a standardized reporting methodology for assessing the amount and type of bycatch in the fishery, Fleming said.
   “NMFS has not done this,” Fleming said. “An appropriate level of observer coverage would be part of this, as would other changes that we expect would be proposed by NMFS and/or be part of discussions we expect to have with the agency.”
   But Nies said CLF itself “has never offered a specific suggestion on what an adequate bycatch reporting program should look like — unless it involves observer coverage, which the council addressed in Amendment 13.”
   Currently, 1994’s Amendment 5 reporting provisions remain in place under A13, requiring vessels to report landings and discards for each trip, including weight, species, and whether landed or discarded.
   CLF is requesting an implementation date of May 1, 2005.
   The year’s lag time is meant to prevent any dramatic change, including a court-ordered closure of the fishery that could result from a legal challenge, Fleming said.
   “We want to make it clear that we are not seeking a closure and that instead we feel that targeted changes to the rules established by A13 implemented next year could address our concerns,” he said.
   The Oceana filing focuses on habitat.
   Bottom trawling and scallop dredging, Oceana says, adversely affects EFH for more than 20 species, including juvenile cod.
   Oceana is an international advocacy organization for the protection of the world’s oceans, based in Washington, D.C.
   “Amendment 13,” the filing says, “unlawfully fails to protect essential habitat for severely depleted populations of juvenile groundfish from the destructive effects of bottom trawls and scallop dredges; to deploy appropriate levels of observers to adequately report and assess the type and amount of wastefully discarded fish, known as bycatch; and to take a hard look at the environmental impact of the groundfish fishery and alternatives for mitigating those impacts.”
   CLF’s Fleming said the Omnibus EFH amendment, which for groundfish would be Amendment 14, offers an opportunity to address habitat issues.
   “But then again,” he said, “the council and NMFS have consistently fallen short in meeting their EFH obligations and the amendment has been delayed again, so now it is not scheduled for completion until at least 2007, for implementation in 2008.”
   NSC’s O’Dell said she is concerned about the two environmental lawsuits.
   “We hadn’t even implemented Amendment 13,” she said, “and we’re already talking about Amendment 14.”