Community-based Sectors for the New England Groundfish Fishery

More documents

Recommendations

Info

access to new fishery entrants, perhaps through an apprenticeship program. Sectors may also offer a vehicle for environmental NGOs to negotiate mutually beneficial agreements for use of environmentally friendly fishing practices using market incentives as an alternative to court actions and regulatory initiatives that are slow, costly and often ineffective. The industry has been slow to take up sectors despite the potential advantages they offer. To date there have only been two sectors approved. No mobile gear (i.e. trawler) sectors have been approved, and no sector has requested an allocation of all regulated groundfish species it catches or been granted exemption from primary input controls (i.e., DAS limitations). The GB Hook Sector has received some regulatory relief in the form of exemption from trip limits, the May closures and differential DAS counting. A primary constraint on the adoption of sector management is the difficulty involved in formation of a sector. Prospective sectors must devise an operations plan complete with a legal contract and system for monitoring catch of its members. They must also complete an environmental assessment. They must submit these at least a year before the sector can be implemented. The sector can only be implemented through a framework or amendment of the Council. The sector must also bear the costs of monitoring catches of its members and ensuring their compliance with the sector operations plan. There are no publicly provided resources (monetary or advisory) available to prospective sectors, but the expertise and resources necessary to accomplish these tasks are substantial for an industry that is already in severe financial difficulty. To make development of sectors more feasible, it would be helpful if extension services could be provided to prospective sectors (particularly for preparation of environmental assessments). Despite these constraints, a large number of sector proposals were submitted to the Council in May of 2007. The two Cape Cod sectors submitted proposals that would substantially change their nature – by requesting allocations of all groundfish species as well as monkfish, dogfish and skates and requesting exemptions from effort controls and seasonal closures. A small group of permit holders of mobile gear vessels based in Port Clyde, Maine submitted a proposal also requesting allocations of all groundfish stocks, monkfish and skates and exemptions from effort controls. A potentially larger sector that would include primarily mobile gear vessels from Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island submitted a proposal requesting only allocations of species of concern and exemptions from trip limits, differential DAS counting and seasonal closures. 4 The Northeast Seafood Coalition organized submission of another 12 sector proposals for prospective fixed gear and mobile gear sectors based out of Gloucester and New Bedford, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Point Judith, Rhode Island. A final proposal was submitted by a small group of permit holders based out of Boston. A more detailed summary of the proposal is provided in appendix C. This set of sectors has the potential to include vessels with catch history representing the majority of groundfish catch in the Multispecies fishery. However, since sector proposals do not designate member vessels and do not bind prospective members to participation at the proposal stage, it is not possible to say at this point what percentage of the industry these groups account for. 4 The proposal and EA also includes an option for all groundfish, monkfish and skates and exemption from effort controls, but this was not chosen as the preferred option because the sector organizers were informed that it was highly unlikely they could be granted an allocation of monkfish of skates and thus would have to remain under DAS controls for monkfish on trips with more than incidental catch of monkfish. 12
2.2 Experience with Existing Sectors in the New England Groundfish Fishery The first sector in the New England groundfish fishery, The Georges Bank Cod Hook Sector, was developed along with Amendment 13 and was authorized by Amendment 13. It received an allocation only of GB cod. Because the sector did not seek allocations of all groundfish stocks they can catch (e.g. haddock), they were unable to completely opt out of the effort control system. The lack of an effort constraint would have allowed them an unfair advantage to pursue other fish stocks. Consequently GB Hook sector members have been required to use DAS when fishing. Leasing amongst sector members was allowed and is not constrained by vessel size, but sector vessels can not lease DAS from non-sector vessels. A primary benefit for the sector members is exemption from the trip or possession limits on cod and exemption from the May seasonal closure on Georges Bank. The sector is also assured by regulation that their allocation will not be reduced as a result of non sector vessels catch exceeding the non-sector proportion of the TAC (though if that led to a reduction in the overall TAC the sector would take a proportionate cut in their allocation). The GB hook sector was reauthorized in 2005, 2006 and 2007 and has continued to operate in a similar fashion as when it was first created though the number of members has dropped by half. Sectors are free to design their own system for allocating/rationing catch amongst their members as long as NMFS is satisfied that this approach will constrain the overall sector catch within the sector allocation. The approach taken by the GB Hook sector was to divide its allocation up into monthly quotas that would be fished competitively by sector members. If a monthly quota is caught before the end of the month, all sector vessels are required to stop fishing. If the monthly quota is not taken it is rolled into the next monthly quota. In practice catch has never reached the monthly quota, and the annual catch of the Sector remained well below the sector allocation in the first two years of operation. In the 2004-05 fishing year the GB Hook sector was allocated 371 metric tons of cod (12.58% of the overall Georges Bank cod TAC), but only caught a total of 130 metric tons. In 2005, 49 vessels in the GB Cod Hook Sector (Sector) were allocated 455 metric tons. of GB cod and harvested 125 tons, only approximately 27% of the sector allocation. The fact that the Hook sector’s catch was well under it’s allocation was largely due to low catch rates for cod and continued restrictions of DAS, but a delay in authorization that resulted in a late start of fishing both years also contributed. The sectors participation in a haddock special access program (SAP) in closed area 1 may also contributed to their failure to catch their cod allocation. A second Georges Bank cod sector for fixed gear was authorized under Framework 42 in 2006. This sector included vessels using sink gillnet gear. Despite the fact that prospective members of this sector had and would continue to catch species other than cod, the sector sought only an allocation of Georges Bank cod. Like the hook sector its members were required to continue to fish under the DAS system. No vessels actually participated in the GB fixed gear sector the 2006- 07 fishing year because of concern that they would not be able to fish at the beginning of the fishing year. However, the sector was reauthorized and began operation in the 2007-08 fishing year. As of March 7, 2007, 19 prospective Fixed Gear Sector members had signed the 2007 Sector Contract (Federal Register Vol. 72, No. 72 / Monday, April 16, 2007 pg. 18940). The regulations authorizing the formation of sectors in the Northeast Multispecies groundfish fishery do not specify that sectors be “community-based.” They do not specify that sector members must be part of a particular geographically defined community nor do they require the sector to limit fishing operations to a particular area (though the sector would have to have catch history for the groundfish stocks in areas they fish in order to receive an allocation of those 13
Page 1 and 2: Community-based Sectors for the New
Page 3 and 4: Table of Contents Executive Summary
Page 5 and 6: Community leaders in Portland and P
Page 7 and 8: of community-based permit banks. Th
Page 9 and 10: 1.0 Introduction The groundfish fis
Page 11 and 12: Although Amendment 13 effectively e
Page 13: somewhat vague on how the allocatio
Page 17 and 18: me to explore the idea further and
Page 19 and 20: period is that which was used to de
Page 21 and 22: shown above in Table 2. Revenue pro
Page 23 and 24: Table 3a: Port Clyde Sector Revenue
Page 25 and 26: ecruitment and could be either high
Page 27 and 28: increased. They also have caught a
Page 29 and 30: 3.2.1 Strawman Sector Structure and
Page 31 and 32: Table 8: Portland Sectors A and B V
Page 33 and 34: discussed earlier these price proje
Page 35 and 36: Table 9b: Portland Sector A Revenue
Page 37 and 38: Table 9d: Portland Sector B Revenue
Page 39 and 40: Table 10b: Portland Sector A Revenu
Page 41 and 42: Table 11b: Portland Sector B Specie
Page 43 and 44: vessels would be leased to sector v
Page 45 and 46: is ostensibly to reduce excess capa
Page 47 and 48: Table 15: Projected Total Revenue,
Page 49 and 50: later. However, rolling baselines c
Page 51 and 52: 4.4 Communities without Catch Histo
Page 53 and 54: opportunities for consolidation of
Page 55 and 56: References Alexander, Yvette 2006.M
Page 57 and 58: Appendix A: Landings and revenue pr
Page 59 and 60: Appendix B: Groundfish Price Model
Page 61 and 62: Appendix C: Sector Proposals Submit
Page 63 and 64: Port Clyde Community Sector Glen Li
Page 65 and 66:
Full Retention All fish caught 1. e
Page 67 and 68:
Reasons for Existence: 1. end overf
Page 69 and 70:
Gloucester Fixed Gear Sector Peter
Page 71 and 72:
New Bedford Channel Trawl Sector Ri
Page 73 and 74:
Point Judith / Southern New England
Page 75:
Pier 6 Initiative Michael Walsh Req
show all

Community-based Sectors for the New England Groundfish Fishery

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?