By Becky Evans
NEW BEDFORD — Fishermen are projecting that New Bedford's sea scallop industry will take a 25-percent revenue hit in 2010 due to proposed cuts in the scallop harvest.
Regional fisheries regulators last month voted to put the allocation cuts in place, arguing the reduction is necessary to ensure that scallop stocks remain at sustainable levels and do not become subject to alleged overfishing.
The New England Fishery Management Council chose a conservative method for calculating the sustainable level of scallop harvest for the 2010 fishing season, which begins March 1. As a result, fishermen will be allowed to harvest about 16 percent of commercially sized scallops.
But with recent surveys showing the scallop stock is in good condition, fishermen say they should be allowed to harvest more of the shellfish.
"The council is taking a very, very conservative approach, and we don't feel that it is justified," said Roy Enoksen, president of Eastern Fisheries Inc., a New Bedford company that operates the largest fleet in the industry with 23 scallopers.
"I think everyone in the industry would go along with this if they thought it was in the least bit necessary to preserve the stock," Enoksen said. "But we have a resource that is completely rebuilt and in very good shape."
The proposed cuts, which need final approval from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Marine Fisheries Service, would do two things:
First, they would reduce by one the number of scallop trips allowed into so-called access areas, or areas of the ocean that regulators periodically close to fishing so that scallop stocks can rebuild. In 2009, scallopers were granted five access area trips. The new rules would allow four such trips in 2010.
In addition to access area trips, scallopers are allocated a certain number of fishing days to harvest scallops in other parts of the ocean, known as open areas. The new rules would reduce these so-called "days at sea" from 38 in 2009 to 29 in 2010.
Enoksen estimates the cuts will translate into a loss of $250,000 to $300,000 per vessel.
"It's very significant," he said. "It's probably 25 percent of the year's earnings."
When considering the full impact to the East Coast economy, the total loss could be "over a quarter of a billion dollars," he said.
"It doesn't make sense with the economy the way it is today," he said.
Deirdre Boelke, a fisheries analyst who coordinates the scallop plan for the New England Fishery Management Council, said a number of constraints led to council to adopt the proposed cuts.
Some scallop beds are off limits to fishing due to management measures such as closings that protect essential fish habitat and rules that limit how much yellowtail flounder is caught in scallop dredges. New seasonal closings aimed at preventing endangered sea turtles from coming into contact with scallop fishing gear posed another challenge for the council, Boelke said.
While two recent surveys show the scallop stock is in "good shape," Boelke said the problem is that many are young scallops. The council has an obligation to optimize yield by delaying the harvest by a year or two, so the young scallops can grow bigger, she said.
Although the industry will suffer economic hardship in the short term, it will be rewarded with increased revenues in the future, she said.
"A one-year lowering of effort gives a better long-term result," she said. By 2011, the industry should be back to five access area trips and a higher number of days at sea, she said.
But Justin Tonnessen, who captains the Fairhaven-based scalloper Ambassador, is not convinced of the need for a conservative management approach.
"There are scallops everywhere right now," he said. "I don't see any sign of there being a threat of overfishing."
Kevin Stokesbury, a scallop researcher at UMass Dartmouth's School for Marine Science and Technology, conducts an annual video survey of the Atlantic sea scallop stock.
His 2009 survey data, when compared with 2008 data, showed an increase of 7 million pounds in total biomass, or total weight of the stock. However, due to the abundance of young scallops, there was a 34 million pound decrease in exploitable biomass, or the amount of scallops that may be harvested by commercial fishermen.
Enoksen said the scallop industry is in the process of "trying to figure the best way to combat" the proposed cuts. The industry has been in contact with state representatives in Washington, D.C.
Congressman Barney Frank, D-Mass., who has pledged to launch an effort to revisit and possibly reform the Magnuson-Stevens Act that governs the nation's fisheries, has decried the new scallop limits as well.
"The economic impact to fishermen and the regional economy is substantial," Frank said. "We should be looking at ways to improve access to abundant scallops in closed areas and not continually reduce what fishermen are allowed to catch. This reinforces my determination to not only work through this situation, but to re-examine the law as well."
In 2008, New Bedford fishermen landed 146.4 million pounds of seafood for a total value of $241.3 million. Scallops harvested from the ocean floor accounted for about 17 percent of the port's seafood landings and about 73 percent of their value.
Becky Evans is a staff writer with the Standard-Times of New Bedford.
