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by Lorelei Stevens
WOODS HOLE, MA - Over the last few months, the National Fisheries Institute-Scientific Monitoring Committee (NFI-SMC) and the National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) have moved beyond a serious difference of opinion back to working together to advance the cause of better data collection.
In the end, the conflict was a learning experience all around. It also demonstrated the truth in the warning that there are bound to be bumps in the road toward effective cooperative research, but they can be overcome.
In recent years, NFI-SMC has been working with scientists from the Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory at Rutgers University to coordinate cooperative research projects with the NEFSC.
The committee has also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from fishermen and buyers to help pay for projects. Plus, it has organized volunteer vessels to participate in research and encouraged the state of New Jersey to create and fund the Fishing Industry Development Center, which has also committed funding for cooperative research.
One of the high-profile projects extensively supported by NFI-SMC involved working with NEFSC scientists on the 2001 spring and fall trawl surveys.
The effort included side-by-side tows between the commercial fishing vessel Jason and Danielle and the research vessel Albatross IV to compare the relative catchability by the two vessels and the gear they use.
During the two surveys, the Jason and Danielle, with NMFS and academic scientists on board, also conducted independent tows in areas requested by NMFS to supplement the number of stations sampled by the Albatross IV.
Basically, the idea was to begin to find ways to provide more and better-quality data for NMFS stock assessments - on which quotas for many commercially important species are based - and to help bolster fishermen's confidence in stock assessment reports.
Peer-reviewed studies of these two cooperative projects were generally positive and called for the continuation of the program to verify the results.
So it was perhaps understandable that some NFI-SMC industry people were shocked when, during a March 4 meeting, NEFSC Director Mike Sissenwine announced that the Albatross IV had already left the dock to begin the spring 2002 survey without them.
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Capt. Jimmy Ruhle dumps the bag of an Illex squid catch aboard the Darana R. during a fishing trip in the summer of 1999. Ruhle was one of about a dozen skippers participating in the pilot project to provide real-time catch data to managers of the Illex fishery. (Lisa Hendrickson photo)
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Different views
Industry responded by widely distributing a biting written account of the meeting, including quoted exchanges between Sissenwine and Jason and Danielle owner Bill Grimm regarding differences in the catches between the commercial vessel and the Albatross IV.
From the perspective of the industry account, Sissenwine had discontinued the commercial vessel sampling program just as the results had begun to indicate that there might be room for improvement in how the NMFS surveys - used by the agency for decades to identify abundance trends - are conducted.
"It's not that we want to denigrate the science, but we want the best possible science rather than the best available science," said Sima Freierman of Montauk Inlet Seafood, referencing federal law requiring that fisheries management decisions be based on the best available science. Freierman is also a member of NFI-SMC.
A number of NFI-SMC members apparently believed that continuing the survey work was a given.
Sissenwine, on the other hand, had a very different take on the situation. Unlike the previous two surveys, no specific research proposal had been made to NMFS for the spring 2002 survey.
In a response to the industry account, Sissenwine said, "No one should have been surprised that the meeting on March 4 was too late for planning a cooperative survey to match up with the NEFSC's spring survey on Albatross IV. The starting date of the NEFSC spring survey had been scheduled for more than a year, at about the same time as it has occurred for more than 30 years."
In a follow-up interview, Sissenwine explained that it wasn't that he had made a choice to not go forward, but that "we ran out of time."
He described the first year of cooperation on the surveys as "a learning year" to figure out protocols.
"I felt the need to step back and re-evaluate goals," Sissenwine said. "Scientific planning does take time and it can be bureaucratic and that can be frustrating."
Moving on
Disagreements between industry and NMFS are nothing new. But what was extraordinary about this one was the speed with which just about everyone put the experience behind them and started talking again.
"Things that were negative in March are pretty positive now," said Haskin Shellfish Lab Director Eric Powell in mid-May. "Maybe there wasn't thorough communication, but it seemed that everybody wanted to get things straightened out."
While NFI-SMC members and Powell regret the lapse in the comparative time line that will result from industry not participating in the spring survey, they, Sissenwine, and other NEFSC scientists have had several productive sessions since the tension-filled March 4 meeting.
The result was NFI-SMC's submission of several projects to the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council's 2003 research set-aside program. The program will make 0%-3% of total allowable catch levels of many species available to be harvested so that sale proceeds can be used to fund scientific projects.
Next year
Among the project proposals coming out of the talks between NFI-SMC and the center is one for industry participation in the spring and fall 2003 surveys.
Sissenwine said the plan this time around is to "start off with workshops like we did with the scallop industry, to roll up our sleeves and find agreement as to what is practical."
Another proposal is for the Illex real-time data collection program that has been in the pilot stage for the last few years.
According to NFI-SMC Chairman Dan Cohen of Atlantic Capes Seafood in Cape May, NJ, about 10 boats are lined up to report their catches electronically to the NEFSC while fishing this summer.
The hope is to replace log books with real-time, accurate catch reporting. This is important because, since Illex is a short-lived species, many doubt that setting a precise quota a year ahead of time is the best way to manage the resource.
In 1998, for example, the fishery was shut down once the quota was filled even though there was wide acknowledgment that the squid were still abundant.
"This project has been going on without funding from anyone but the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and volunteer boats," Cohen said. "There is real value to this. We hope to expand it in the fall to 20-30 boats in the scup and Loligo fisheries."
Migration timing
Other NFI-SMC proposals for 2003 involve studies to get a better handle on where migrating fish are located during the time the survey takes place and how water temperature and other environmental factors may influence the fish's availability to the survey.
Powell explained that many important commercial and recreational species migrate offshore in the winter and congregate just about the time NMFS conducts its surveys.
The timing is probably different from year to year because the migration is believed to be influenced by water temperature. This, many believe, may be responsible for the "patchiness" in the catch that survey scientists find troublesome.
"We're in agreement that the timing of the seasonal migrations could result in a match or mismatch of timing for the survey," said Sissenwine. "This variability is very interesting to scientists and for tuning this assessment. We've been interested in more intense industry activity on this."
The NFI-SMC is also proposing a multi-year fluke fecundity study, including documenting the presence and location of egg masses that, Cohen explained, "will tell us where we are in our rebuilding schedules."
Another project would be an extension of the ongoing gear modification work conducted by industry people and Chris Glass of the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences to reduce scup discards in the Loligo squid fishery.
Set-aside auction
While all of these projects have been submitted for consideration under next year's research set-aside program, NMFS has awarded NFI-SMC some quota for the current 2002 fishing year and the industry group recently settled on a way to determine which boats will catch it.
NFI-SMC and the Haskin Shellfish Research Lab applied for and, early in June, received an exempted fishing permit (EFP) good through Dec. 31.
The EFP allows 18 fishing vessels to participate in a project to test the effectiveness of a 5-1/2" square mesh extension escapement panel for reducing the bycatch of scup and the retention of Loligo in the Mid-Atlantic gear restricted areas (GRA) in the offshore Loligo fishery this fall.
Also in the EFP, NMFS authorized NFI-SMC to take up to 25,550 pounds of black sea bass, 80,775 pounds of scup, and 187,000 pounds of Loligo squid.
NFI-SMC intends to take the quota set-aside award independent of the fall research project, Cohen explained.
Early in June, the group conducted an auction among interested vessels for the Loligo set-aside. Three vessels - the Huntress I, the Margaret Holley, and the Perception - submitted winning bids for the available set-aside quota in exchange for a specified per-pound contribution to NFI-SMC, which will be used to fund this fall's research.
While fishing for the Loligo set-aside, the vessels must comply with all fishing regulations and are only exempt from the current 2,500-pound Loligo trip limit up to the cumulative amount of the set aside.
A similar auction was scheduled to take place on June 14 to distribute the black sea bass and scup set-aside quota awarded to NFI-SMC.
New members welcome
Cohen stressed that while NFI-SMC is limiting participation in the auctions to vessels that have supported the committee's work, anyone is welcome to join the group.
NFI-SMC was founded in 1997 and has raised more than $250,000 since then from member vessels and buyers to fund research on Mid-Atlantic trawl species including squid, scup, fluke, and black sea bass.
All funds, which are administered by the National Fisheries Institute, go to research.
"There are no administrative costs," Cohen said.
NFI-SMC member vessels pay either $2,000 per year or one-half of 1% of their annual gross.
Anyone interested in more information can call Cohen at (609) 425-1044 or e-mail him at Acfish@aol.com
