Page 12. MAINE COASTAL NEWS November 2011


Commercial Fishing News when fishermen in the California drift gillnet


Continued from Page 11.


fishery were required to use acoustic pingers, underwater sound-emitting devices that alert animals to the net, decreasing the probability of entanglement. In Hawaii, longline vessels reduced seabird interactions with fishermen by 92 to 95 percent by thawing and dying fish bait blue to make it less visible to the birds. Catch shares and industry-managed coop- eratives have changed fleet behavior in Alaska and the Northwest, reducing eco- nomic discards, or the disposal of target fish that are of undesirable size, sex or quality. The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires that NOAA’s conservation and management measures minimize bycatch to the extent practicable. Bycatch data are important infor- mation used by managers in setting annual catch limits and scientists in producing stock assessments for fish and protected species. Conservation and management measures are developed through a public process by the eight regional fishery management councils, which include members who represent com- mercial fishing, recreational fishing, environ- mental interests, and academia. Improved data on the scope of the problem and how bycatch reduction measures are working will help councils and fishermen increasingly avoid the costly and wasteful problem of bycatch.


NOAA’s National Bycatch Report is available online. The agency continues to collect data on bycatch in preparation for the next edition of the national bycatch report, scheduled for 2013. Future editions in the report will be used to monitor changes and trends in bycatch, including as a result of new regulations, bycatch reduction devices, changes in fishing patterns, and population fluctuations in both targeted and bycatch species.


Report for Fishing Year 2010 on the Performance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery (May 2010 - April 2011)


By Andrew Kitts, Evan Bing-Sawyer, Matthew McPherson, Julia Olson, John Walden, NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543 Citation: Kitts A, Bing-Sawyer E, McPherson M, Olson J, Walden J . 2011. Report for Fishing Year 2010 on the Perfor- mance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery (May 2010 – April 2011). US Dept Commer, Northeast Fish Sci Cent Ref Doc. 11-12; 44 p. Available from: National Marine Fisheries Service, 166 Water Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543-1026, or


MISCELLANEOUS COMMERCIAL FISHING NEWS


online at http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/nefsc/ publications/


Information Quality Act Compliance: In accordance with section 515 of Public Law 106-554, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center completed both technical and policy reviews for this report. These predissemination reviews are on file at the NEFSC Editorial Office. Executive Summary


This report provides an evaluation of the economic and social performance of active limited access Northeast groundfish vessels for the 2010 fishing year (May 2010 through April 2011) and updates results contained in the Interim Report for Fishing Year 2010 on the Performance of the Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) Fishery (May 2010 - January 2011)[1]. The analyses (Table 1) revealed some notable changes in the fishery between 2007 and 2010; some of these are recent, while others reflect ongoing trends.


Three clear changes were evident in 2010 compared with the 2007, 2008 and 2009 fish- ing years. Combined yearly average prices for all species were higher in 2010 than any other year in the time series. Even though groundfish gross revenues continued to decline in 2010, higher prices resulted in 2010 gross revenues from all species landed being higher than in 2008 or 2009, and nearly equal to 2007. Economic performance, as indicated by gross revenue per unit effort, improved in 2010.


Other performance measures indicated the continuation of existing trends into 2010. Some of these trends are downward. Since 2008, landings of both groundfish and non-groundfish species have declined by about 14%. Several measures of fishing activ- ity and effort also continued to decline in 2010: there were 17% fewer active vessels in 2010 than in 2007, 48% fewer groundfish trips, 33% fewer days absent on groundfish trips, and fewer crew positions, days, and trips. Other indicators showed increasing trends. The number of non-groundfish trips increased somewhat (2%) between 2007 and 2010. There has also been an increasing con- centration of groundfish gross revenues among top earning vessels, as gross rev- enues have become consolidated on fewer vessels. About 68% of gross revenues from groundfish sales during 2007-2009 resulted from landings by 20% of active groundfish vessels. In 2010, 20% of vessels accounted for about 80% of the gross revenues from groundfish sales.


Limited access Common Pool and Sector performance was compared using some of the performance indicators. However, this comparison is not useful for evaluating the


relative performance of DAS and Sector- based management because of fundamental differences between these groups of vessels which were not accounted for in the analyses. All measures of gross revenue per trip and per day absent in 2010 were higher for the aver- age Sector vessel and lower for the average Common Pool vessel. In addition, many, but not all, of the overall averages for 2010 are higher than those in 2007-2009.


The evaluation conducted did not exam- ine: (a) the costs associated with joining a sector; (b) vessel operating costs; (c) the effects of annual catch entitlements trading; and (d) changes in ownership patterns. An expanded version of this report scheduled to be released in the Fall of 2011 will include analyses of these factors.


Fisheries of the Northeastern United States; Changes to Vessel Replacement and Upgrade Provisions for Fishing Vessels Issued Limited Access Federal Fishery Permits Summary


NMFS, in consultation with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (Com- mission) and the New England and Mid- Atlantic Fishery Management Councils (Councils), is considering changes to the current system of regulations that limit the potential size of a replacement vessel. This advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) provides background information and requests public comment on the admin- istrative and financial burdens of the current system, as well as on what type of changes would be appropriate to reduce that burden and the regulatory complexity without ad- versely affecting the fishery. NMFS will con- sider all recommendations received in re- sponse to this ANPR prior to any proposed rulemaking.Show citation box Background


Measures to limit the potential size of a replacement vessel were first implemented in the Northeast Region in 1994 in conjunction with the adoption of limited access permits in the Northeast Multispecies and Atlantic Scallop Fishery Management Plans (FMP). NMFS enacted these measures to promote conservation of the fish species by limiting the potential increase in fishing capacity of the fleet and thereby maintaining total fishing mortality within the requirements of the re- spective rebuilding schedule of the FMP. In the following years, NMFS adopted limited access permits for other fisheries in the Northeast, some of which included various restrictions on how a permitted vessel could be replaced. In 1999, an omnibus amendment (Consistency Amendment) to all the FMPs of the Councils was implemented (64 FR 8263, February 19, 1999) to expand and standardize


the upgrade restrictions to encompass most of the limited access fisheries in the North- east.


The current regulations restrict the size and horsepower of any replacement vessel, or modifications to the current vessel, based on the specifications of a baseline vessel. The baseline vessel for each limited access permit is typically the first vessel issued the limited access permit in that fishery at the time that permit was issued. In the case of fisheries that adopted baseline restrictions through the Consistency Amendment, the permitted vessel as of the date of the final rule’s imple- mentation sets the baseline. In some cases, this methodology resulted in a single vessel with permits for multiple fisheries having more than one baseline. In that situation, the most restrictive combination of baseline specifications applies, unless the vessel owner chooses to relinquish permanently the permit with the more restrictive baseline(s). Current regulations allow vessel owners to increase (or upgrade) a specification either by moving the limited access permit to a new vessel or by modifying the current vessel, up to 10 percent above of the baseline vessel’s length overall, gross registered tonnage, and net tonnage and up to 20 percent above the baseline vessel’s horsepower. As a matter of NMFS policy, all calculated maximum up- grade values are rounded up to the next whole number. The baseline size and horsepower specifications associated with a permit can only be upgraded once, although the vessel size characteristics (length overall, gross reg- istered tonnage, and net tonnage) and engine horsepower can be upgraded at different times. For example, a vessel owner looking to replace his current vessel, which has a baseline engine horsepower of 300, may, if the horsepower on that permit was not up- graded before, move it to a vessel with up to 360 horsepower (20 percent greater than the 300-horsepower baseline). If the owner opts for a new vessel with a 340-horsepower en- gine, that action counts as the one-time up- grade, and any future replacement vessel could not exceed that new 340-horsepower maximum limit. The baseline size characteris- tics can be upgraded through this same ves- sel replacement or used another time. How- ever, since size characteristics are upgraded as a group, if the baseline length overall is upgraded but not the gross and net ton- nages, the baseline tonnage specifications cannot be upgraded in the future. When a vessel owner wants to move a limited access Federal fishery permit to a replacement vessel, as part of the application he must provide documentation from a third party to demonstrate that the length, gross registered tonnage, net tonnage, and horse- power are within the limits for that permit.


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