Tag Archives: yellow tail
Ripples from disruptions in the fishing industry will reach a long way By DON CUDDY
They say bad news comes in threes, and that seems to be the case in the New Bedford fishing industry these days. On top of a recent declaration from the secretary of commerce that the groundifsh industry in New England is a national disaster, the scallop fleet is looking at catch reductions of 30 percent for the next two years. And groudfishermen are resigned to more drastic cuts to their quota for the next fishing year, which begins on May 1.
Frustration over the cuts is mounting on the waterfront because fishermen have their doubts about the accuracy of NOAA’s stock assessments.
“There’s more yellowtail now than there were in the ’60s,” said Reidar Bendiksen of Reidar’s Manufacturing in Fairhaven, a family business that makes trawl gear. “But the fishermen can’t go where they are, and they are not allowed to catch them.”
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20121014/NEWS/210140346
Scallop Actions: NEFMC September 25 – 27, 2012 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
,,,,,,,,,,quota for the U.S. and Canada to share for Georges Bank yellowtail, leaving the U.S. share in the low 200’s—an amount considered insufficient by the scallop harvesting industry. In contrast, the New England Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) recommended consideration of an overall quota of 1,150 mt. The Council did not vote to approve the TMGC-recommended level, and will consider the quota level recommended by the SSC as well. The Council did not move forward with the SSC recommendation that there be no possession of Georges Bank yellowtail. Read More
Yellowtail flounder giveaway will not harm scallopers this year
The scallop fleet heaved a collective sigh of relief Friday when NOAA Fisheries announced the industry would not suffer for a good deed. Every year, groundfishermen and scallopers share the allowable catch of yellowtail flounder on Georges Bank. In June, to help groundfishermen struggling with low catch limits, the scallopers gave the dragger fleet 150 metric tons of yellowtail quota, half of their 2102 allocation. That equals more than 800,000 pounds of fish. Alarm bells began to ring when figures emerged showing the scallop fleet had taken about 136 metric tons of its remaining 150-ton allotment as of Wednesday — more than 90 percent — with five months remaining in the current fishing year. However, a NOAA Fisheries release Thursday eased fishermen’s concerns. The scallop fishery is exempted “from accountability measures for any Georges Bank yellowtail flounder catch below their initially allocated 2012 catch limit of 307.5 metric tons,” the press release said. Scallop boat captain Tom Quintin on the Patience said the news came as a relief to him. “I was just telling my boss we shouldn’t have given the yellowtail away when I heard we’d caught almost all of the quota,” he said. Boat owner Dan Eilertsen said the news was reassuring. “I have 13 trips left that I could have lost if they had shut us down. So I am glad to hear that,” he said. But Eilertsen, who owns the Liberty, Justice and Freedom, said scallopers would not have agreed to the transfer initially without assurances that it would not hurt them. “That’s what eased the deal,” he said. http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120929/NEWS05/209290325/-1/SPECIAL77
