Tag Archives: Groundfish Monitoring
NE Groundfish Fishery in Hail Mary mode – Monitor vote could be death knell for fleet
A quick recap: The council has been working on Amendment 23 for more than two years. It seems like 50. The amendment will set future monitoring levels for sector-based groundfish vessels. The council faces four alternatives: Monitors aboard 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of groundfish trips. The council has chosen 100% coverage as its preferred alternative. That’s not good for the groundfishermen. Once the federal government stops harvesting spare change from between the sofa cushions to keep reimbursing the fleet for at-sea monitoring, the onus for paying falls on the fishermen at a current tune of about $700 per day per vessel. >click to read< Online access to the meeting is available by >clicking this link< 10:24
NEFMC will vote Sept. 30 on changing requirements for groundfish monitoring, fishermen have mixed responses
Commercial fisherman Randy Cushman walks on top of his boat where he measures fish in front of electronic monitoring cameras, pictured to the right. Cushman is among a handful of New England fishermen who use electronic monitoring instead of a traditional human observer to track what they catch and discard. The New England Fisheries Management Council (NEFMC) is scheduled to vote on changes to its groundfish management plan at a virtual meeting Sept. 30, culminating four years of research. “If we’re going to have accurate stock assessments, we need 100 percent coverage under this management system,” said Cushman. But, the prospect of increased monitoring concerns Terry Alexander, a fisherman who represents Maine on the NEFMC and operates his 62-foot boat out of Massachusetts. >click to read< 10:57
‘There’s no margin’ – Monitors final nail in coffin Feds propose up to 100% fish-counting, unclear on who’s on hook for costs
Groundfishermen, speaking Wednesday afternoon during the public comment period, drew a straight line from the increased monitoring costs to the economic collapse of the fishery. “I made 124 trips last year and each day was 10-14 hours,” said Gloucester fisherman Joe Orlando. “At $700 a day for 100% monitoring, that comes to $84,000 for the year. I didn’t even come close to making that. It would completely bankrupt the sector. And there’s only a handful of us left.” >click to read< 19:45
New England Fishery Management Council explores monitoring alternatives
The New England Fishery Management Council continues to work on an amendment to improve monitoring within the groundfish fishery, with a particular emphasis on generating more options within the dockside monitoring alternatives. Meeting for three days this week in Mystic, Connecticut, the council approved several additions and modifications to the original range of groundfish monitoring alternatives, with an eye toward completing a draft environmental impact statement in time to schedule public hearings later this year. The council also requested its Groundfish Committee “expand the number of options,,, >click to read<08:26
Please submit written comments – Amendment 23, Northeast Multispecies FMP, deadline 5 p.m. EST, Monday, April 3, 2017.
The New England Fishery Management Council (Council) is initiating the development of an amendment to the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Northeast Multispecies (Groundfish) under the authority of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA). The Council is proposing to consider changes to the groundfish monitoring and reporting system to ensure it is providing accurate catch information necessary to manage the fishery efficiently. Click here to read about Amendment 23 (Groundfish Monitoring Amendment) You may attend any of the above scoping meetings to provide oral comments, or you may submit written comments on Amendment 23 by: Fax: (978) 465-3116; Email: [email protected] Mail at the address below. Thomas A. Nies, Executive Director New England Fishery Management Council 50 Water Street, Mill #2 Newburyport, MA 01950 The comment deadline is 5 p.m. EST, Monday, April 3, 2017. Please note on your correspondence; “Northeast Multispecies Amendment 23 Scoping Comments.” For some reason, there is no hearing slated in Rhode Island, and RI fishermen are wondering why there isn’t! 17:26
