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Feature Articles
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ASMFC prepares to amend northern shrimp plan
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This article is reprinted with permission of Commercial Fisheries News, the Northeast's fishing newspaper for over 30 years, ©2003 Compass Publications Inc. Commercial Fisheries News is published monthly; annual subscriptions are $21.95. To subscribe or request a sample issue: call (877) 263-4496; fax (207) 367-2490; e-mail (cfoster@fish-news.com); or click on the hot link.
by Janice M. Plante
What's on the table for public comment | Scheduled Public Hearings
WASHINGTON, DC - The past decade and a half of shrimp management under the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has been familiar, efficient, and, most would say, successful.
That's why fishermen are viewing the upcoming public hearings to amend the Interstate Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Northern Shrimp with some trepidation.
During the first week of September, the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts will hold public hearings on draft Amendment 1 to the FMP - a sweeping document that, once adopted, will replace the regulatory process that has been in place since 1986 (see section, below, for hearing dates and locations).
What fishermen like so much about the current system is that it's predictable, at least as predictable as anything can get when dealing with a fluctuating natural resource.
The shrimp season is set each year like clockwork. Scientists conduct a summer survey aboard the Gloria Michelle. The Northern Shrimp Technical Committee floats some preliminary information about the status of the stock. ASMFC's shrimp advisers get together to strategize and develop recommendations for the ASMFC Northern Shrimp Section. And then the section meets and sets the season - that same day - by adjusting season length and modifying gear requirements.
Even when people don't like the results, they understand the process and have overwhelmingly supported it.
Flexibility desirable
But more and more fishermen in recent years have wanted to try other management strategies, such as fishing outside of the Dec. 1-May 31 seasonal "window" that's so rock solid in the existing FMP.
Others have suggested working under a days-at-sea program, especially when the season is severely restricted because of low biomass. Supporters of the days-at-sea approach argue that if they were allocated 40 fishing days, for instance, they could then decide on their own how best to use those limited days based on the weather, the market, and other factors.
Both of these alternative management strategies are options under draft Amendment 1, as are numerous other proposals that could give the northern shrimp section more flexibility in managing the fishery (see below for Amendment 1 components).
But the amendment also contains proposed "targets" that will be used as "benchmarks" for developing future management measures - and this is what worries industry most.
Fishermen, pointing to groundfish as the most prominent example, fear that the shrimp plan will also turn into a legal fireball once it contains fishing mortality and biomass reference points.
Stock status
ASMFC, however, is under pressure to establish measurable overfishing reference points. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is required to give a progress report to Congress each year on the status of all marine resources, and the agency struggles to attach a label to shrimp.
In 2001, NMFS reported to Congress that northern shrimp was in an "unknown" condition. Should NMFS ever determine that shrimp is "overfished," it believes the agency would be required to develop a rebuilding program if ASMFC didn't at least have a trigger mechanism for stock rebuilding in place.
The status of the stock is at the forefront of the shrimp industry's mind as well given last year's dismal season and bleak forecast.
In the Amendment 1 public hearing document, ASMFC says, "Currently, commercial prospects for the Gulf of Maine northern shrimp fishery are not favorable. The abundance of shrimp, as measured by the state/federal summer survey, estimated by analytical models, and corroborated by 2001 fishery landings and catch per unit effort indices, is at or near its lowest level since the early 1980s, following the collapse of the stock in the late 1970s.
"Early maturing females found in the 2001 summer survey may be a further indication of a stock responding to stress," added ASMFC.
According to preliminary statistics, the shrimp fleet in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts landed 1,227 metric tons of shrimp, or roughly 2.7 million pounds, during 2001. This total, which was harvested during an extremely short 25-day season, represents the lowest landings on record since the 1986 implementation of the FMP.
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Northern shrimp landings in 2001 were 2.7 million pounds worth an average 88 cents a pound, according to preliminary data. That's almost a 50% drop from the 5.3-million-pound catch in 2000, which averaged 79 cents a pound. The 1999 catch was 3.8 million pounds, averaging 92 cents a pound. (Peter K. Prybot Photo)
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Plan needs updating
ASMFC also wants to update the shrimp FMP so that it is clearly in line with its own Interstate Fishery Management Program Charter, which was changed in 2000 to be compatible with the Atlantic Coastal Fisheries Cooperative Management Act.
The commission also wants to use more updated analytical tools in assessing and managing the fishery, all the while keeping in mind that the fishery includes real people and not just pink crustaceans.
The public hearing document states, "The goal of Amendment 1 is to manage the northern shrimp fishery in a manner that is biologically, economically, and socially sound, while protecting the resource, its users, and opportunities for participation by all stakeholders."
Anyone with questions can call Mike Lewis, who is ASMFC's shrimp plan coordinator, at (202) 289-6400. His e-mail address is mlewis@asmfc.org.
To obtain a copy of the public hearing document, call ASMFC or download off the commission's web site at http://www.asmfc.org.
Back to top | Public comment | Scheduled Public Hearings
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What's on the table for public comment in shrimp Amendment 1
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WASHINGTON, DC - The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's (ASMFC) Northern Shrimp Section intends to reevaluate and/or consider almost every management tool in the book as it prepares to overhaul the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp.
During early September public hearings, ASMFC member states will be seeking input on the following proposals.
Closed seasons
- Should ASMFC keep the existing Dec. 1-May 31 annual fishing "window" within which the season must be set?
- Should the commission expand the window beyond those dates?
- Should ASMFC establish a days-at-sea program?
- Should the commission develop "incentives to harvest at biologically optimal times?"
Gear, quotas
- Should ASMFC keep the existing gear controls that now regulate the fishery, or should it look at different restrictions on mesh size, sweep length, and roller size?
- Should ASMFC consider trap limits?
- Should the commission move toward establishing catch quotas, fleet quotas, or sector quotas, which could be done on an annual, seasonal, or monthly basis, or by gear type, vessel category, or area?
Limited entry, etc.
- Should ASMFC consider limited or controlled entry into the northern shrimp fishery?
- Should the commission establish vessel limits, either by vessel length, horsepower, and/or tonnage? Or
- Should ASMFC simply stick with the status quo?
Mortality targets
As in the past, the status of the stock will drive the Northern Shrimp Section's management decisions on an annual basis - and Amendment 1 will give the commission more flexibility to respond quickly to changing stock conditions.
What will be different is that Amendment 1 will usher in new fishing mortality and biomass threshold targets in one form or another. After the amendment is finalized, ASMFC will use these targets as reference points to determine whether or not the stock is overfished.
The Amendment 1 public hearing document contains several options for establishing these new benchmarks.
The first two options center around selecting a "standard fishing mortality target and threshold," while the second four options focus on choosing "a stock biomass target, threshold, and/or limit."
Several pages in the document explain the rationale and purpose of these strategies. The options are complicated and are worth reviewing prior to the public hearings.
Back to top | Public comment | Scheduled Public Hearings
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Scheduled public hearings
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The states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts have scheduled public hearings on Draft Amendment 1 to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission's Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Northern Shrimp.
The hearings all begin at 7 pm in the following locations:
- Gloucester, MA - Sept. 3 at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) Annisquam River Marine Fisheries Station at 30 Emerson Ave. Call DMF Director Paul Diodati at (617) 626-1528.
- Portsmouth, NH - Sept. 4 at the Urban Forestry Center at 45 Elwyn Road. Call Clare McBane of the New Hampshire Fish & Game Department at (603) 868-1095.
- Portland, ME - Sept. 5 at the Holiday Inn by the Bay at 88 Spring St. Call Maine DMR Commissioner George Lapointe at (207) 624-6553.
- Rockport, ME - Sept. 6 at the Samoset Resort on Warrenton Ave. Call George Lapointe at the number above for more info.
ASMFC will accept written comments on the draft amendment until Sept. 23. Send comments to: Mike Lewis, 1444 Eye St., Sixth Floor, Washington, DC 20005; fax (202) 289-6051.
Back to top | Public comment | Scheduled Public Hearings
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