NEWPORT, R.I. — A frustrated New England Fishery Management Council yesterday found reasons to rethink the seven-year rebuilding program for yellowtail flounder.
The 10-7 vote to "initiate an action" to adjust the rebuilding strategy reflected a deeply conflicted council and was taken after hours of fruitless discussion and debate aimed at controlling the bycatch of yellowtail in the scallop fishery.
The dilemma was framed by the imminent imposition of catch limits in the groundfishery next year, as required by the Magnuson-Stevens Act. With hard catch limits, the mixing of yellowtail in the scallop stocks brought on a conflict that had councilors exasperated for more than three hours.
The council tacitly conceded the need to give the scallop fleet its needed allocation of yellowtail. The most lucrative and healthiest stock in New England, scallops have made New Bedford the No. 1 value port in America, so there was no sentiment to limit the scalloping which is conducted up and down the coast through the Middle Atlantic states.
But the debate also involved deep worries about the yellowtail bycatch by the scallop fleet, which over time would detract from the potential catching of yellowtail by groundfishing boats.
Finding no good way to discourage by catch, the council agreed to a motion that questions the wisdom of a seven year rebuilding timetable for yellowtail.
"This is about getting a sustainable yield," said Drew Minkiewicz of the Fisheries Survival Fund, in urging the council to resolve its conflict by loosening up on yellowtail. He cited Canadian science and policy which treats the species as stronger than it is by American counterparts in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Science Center.
But David Goethel, a councilor and New Hampshire fisherman, contended the motion effectively endorsed a continuation of the status quo. "We're sending 100 percent the wrong message; we're telling people there is no need to modify their behavior."
The council set in motion the forces that led to yesterday's tentative retreat from the ambitious rebuilding timetable for yellowtail in June. The council then approved a catch share system fused to sectors, voluntary fishing cooperatives. The cooperatives will work off hard quotas beginning next May, but the new system, championed by Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of fisheries and the head of the NOAA, and the Environmental Defense Fund, also puts the sectors in jeopardy of having all work stop should they exceed their quota in any species. These include yellowtail and explained the effort to discourage bycatch in the scallop fishery. At the same time, the council saw the possibility that the scallop fleet could shut down the new catch share sector system.
Last night, the council began allocating the catch limits for the groundfishery.
Richard Gaines may contacted at 978-283-7000 x3464 or rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.
Denver's Largest-Ever Drug Bust Nets Dozens
Marines: No Punishment for Nazi-like Flag
Vets Look to Translate Military Skills Into Jobs
Expert: Removing LA School's Staff 'Appropriate'
Raw Video: School Bus Burst Into Flames
LA School Reopens Amid Sex Abuse Scandal
$25B Settlement Reached Over Foreclosure Abuses
Pentagon: Allow Women Closer to Front Lines
Obama Gives Education Waivers to 10 States
Giffords Aide to Run for Her Seat
LA School in Sex Abuse Scandal Reopens
Winter Slamming North Asia, Parts of Europe
Syrian Forces Renew Bombardment of Homs
States, Banks Reach Foreclosure-abuse Settlement
Raw Video: Italy's Mount Etna Bursts Into Life
Greeks March; Angry Despite Debt Deal
Raw Video: U.S. Pullout Celebration
Raw Video: Annual Empire State Building Run-Up
Man Killed in Courthouse Shootout
Air Force Airlines: Leaders Get Polished Service
