Mr. Colvin distributed to the Board a series of tables that gave the 2004 New York commercial landing quota, the percent distribution of this quota across harvest periods (where applicable), and the initial trip limit for black sea bass, summer flounder, and bluefish.  

Councilor Freierman asked for a general discussion of commercial trip limits and trip limit principals before the Council discussed how this management tool should be applied for particular species.   She indicated she was representing the concerns and perspectives of the 85-odd vessels in New York's offshore fleet that fish during the winter.   In her view, this is the segment of the overall commercial fishing industry that provides the raison d'etre for all the other support services (e.g., trucking) that all other segments of the industry also rely on.   Without the offshore fleet and its catches, these support services would dry up and smaller boat fisheries would not have access to them.   Ms. Freierman referenced several national standards under the Magnuson-Stevens Sustainable Fisheries Act:   1) assuring stock conservation while achieving optimum yield from a fish stock and 2) conservation measures should minimize bycatch and discards.    She asked for support from the Council for trip limits on these offshore vessels that allowed them to continue to fish economically, which is the only way they can continue to fish.   Ms. Freierman said that offshore vessel operators had no issue with adhering to the same summer trip limits that smaller vessels worked under.   However, a trip for an offshore vessel is 3-4 days and that for an inshore vessel is 1 day.   Under the current rules, the offshore boat can catch no more than a single trip limit across its multi-day trip, while an inshore boat can catch 3-4 times that amount.   She asked for a consideration of aggregating trip limits for multiple day trips.   Ms. Freierman disagreed with the concept of using trip limits to keep a fishery open as long as possible.   A large boat would rather concentrate on larger catches for a shorter time period than having the catch spread over a longer time period and have the boat lose money each time it fishes.   The large boat had requested that Period 4 for summer flounder open in early December and at a high trip limit of 1,000 lbs. - 1500 lbs.    Period 4 actually opened on December 27 th .   This left too little time for the offshore fleet to catch the Period 4 quota and there was a large undercatch, which cost each of the 85 vessels in the fleet about $2000.    Ms. Freierman said that, similarly, the black sea bass winter two period was opened on November 25.   Because of the weather, even the offshore boats had only ten good fishing days between this opening and Christmas.   More than 40,000 lbs of the winter two black sea bass quota thus went unharvested.   The 2003 Winter One sea bass trip limit started off at 500 lbs. and the offshore vessels could harvest only 18% of that period's quota, much of the uncaught quota was then rolled into the summer, increasing the amount of quota available to the small boat fisheries.   The 2004 Winter One sea bass trip limit opened at 1,000 lbs, which Ms. Freierman indicated was causing substantial by-catch of this species in the offshore fishery.   Ms. Freierman stated that winter quota was offshore quotas and it should be managed so as to acknowledge the operating economics of large offshore trawlers and in concert with the national standards she earlier mentioned.

Councilor Jordan said that he was in substantial agreement with Councilor Freierman's thoughts:   management measures like trip limits should be tailored to specific fisheries at different times of year.

Summer Flounder

Two issues need to be resolved for 2004:   1) will the 5% quota set-aside for those declaring in the handline category be retained and 2) what should the quota thresholds and period allocations be for this species?   DEC is proposing to lower the amount allotted to harvesting Period 4 (November & December) to 14% of the annual commercial summer flounder quota and to eliminate the separate commercial hook and line category.   Mr. Byron Young of DEC distributed information on catch and effort in the commercial hook & line category since the category was created in 2000.   Participation in this category has remained relative stable at about 85 persons for the past three years.   He commented that retaining the handline category represented a substantial effort in DEC staff time and there was a reluctance to continue this given the relatively few numbers of people in this category.

Council Jordan favored keeping the handline category and its 5% quota set-aside.   He stated that 2003 was the first time since the program's inception that the summer flounder summer trip limits were good and a season that lasted as long as people wanted.   He said that several handliners who were in the general/all gear category had told him they planned to move to the special handline category for 2004.   He observed that the all gear category trip limit had dropped to a by-catch only by July 2003, which meant a closure on summer flounder fishing for handline fishermen in this category.   He challenged the idea being put forward by DEC that participation rates among those electing the handline category were too low to warrant continue the category.   He suggested that activity levels among all holders of the special summer flounder commercial harvest permit probably did not differ form those presented by DEC for fishermen declaring in the handline category.    He suggested that the DEC did not need to compile especially detailed statistics on handline category participation rates.   Mr. Jordan also suggested that the existence of the 5% handline set-aside gave the Department greater flexibility to manipulate summer flounder trip limits to accommodate some of the concerns from the large vessel sector mentioned by Councilor Freierman.

Mr. Colvin responded to several of Mr. Jordan's points.   He stated the special handline category for fluke was developed based on experiences in the late 1990's when 50 lb. bycatch-based quota weeks were becoming more frequent.   He acknowledged that the fluke fishery in 2003 was under a by-catch only basis for a month beginning in week 28.    He noted that catches during 50-lb bycatch only weeks in 2003 did not differ appreciably from that period when there was a normal 50-lb trip limit in place.   This led DEC to terminate the bycatch fishery only after 4 weeks and to institute a 50-lb trip limit for the balance of the season.   DEC will not revert to by-catch only limits in the fishery.    This eliminates the possibility of the closure that Mr. Jordan referred to for handline fishermen.   Mr. Colvin also noted that in 2004 New York's commercial fluke quota would increase, which may allow slightly higher trip limits throughout the year.   If the Council advises DEC to maintain the special handline category, he would also like the Council's advice on whether the 5% should be applied to the anticipated higher 2004 quota.   

Mr. Colvin expressed interest in hearing from the Council on whether or not the DEC should approach trip limits with the goal in mind of stretching open seasons out or, as Ms. Freierman was suggesting, that this is not as important a goal as allowing period quotas to be caught, minimizing bycatch, etc.   He commented that many sectors of the commercial fishing industry had advised DEC in the past that closures were very damaging.  

Mr. Jordan observed that the proposed opening trip limit for summer flounder in 2004 for Period 2 (May - July) was 125 lbs.   Based on last year's experiences where closures occurred with a lower starting trip limit, he thought 125 lbs. was nearly certain to produce a closure.   He supported keeping the handline set aside at 5% of the state's annual commercial summer flounder quota, regardless of what that quota was.   Mr. John Mihale supported Mr. Jordan's views.   Mr. Colvin stated that representatives from large vessels who were involved in the discussions that resulted in the creation of the special handline set aside were firm in their belief that the handline percentage would stay permanently at 5% if, and only if, all handline fishermen declared in the category.   At present, there is a significant number of handline fishermen who fish in the general/all gear category, so the total amount of the annual summer flounder commercial quota that is either earmarked for or caught by handline fishermen is more than 5%.   Mr. Colvin asked the Council for its thoughts and advice on this important matter.

Mr. Jordan motioned that the Council recommend to the Department that the 5% summer flounder quota set-aside for fishermen declaring for the handline category be retained for 2004.   He clarified that his motion implied retention of the program using the same rules and criteria as in the past four years, i.e., not all fishermen fishing handlines for summer flounder must declare for this category in 2004.   Councilor McBride supported the motion.  

Councilor Freierman stated she would be more comfortable with a motion that simply recommend that DEC continue to implement a handline set-aside category in 2004, but the specifics of how much of the annual state summer flounder quota would be determined later, by the March 2004 Council meeting.   Mr. Jordan rejected this as a suggested amendment to his motion; he stated that he was willing to rediscuss the entire approach used in the commercial handline set-aside program, but that this would take considerable time and would require the involvement of people not present at today's meeting.   Mr. Colvin reminded the Board that the agreed-upon minimum threshold of participation to make the handline category viable was 50 and that, in 2003, fewer than that people were significantly involved in harvesting summer flounder in this category.   Mr. Jordan's motion was adopted by a vote of 9 in favor; 3 opposed; 1 abstention .

Councilor Freierman motioned that the Council recommend to DEC that it roll any commercial summer flounder quota underage from Period 1 to Period 4 and that the agency initiate work to develop a cumulative trip limit in whatever category it deems appropriate.   Mr. Colvin asked if Ms. Freierman would agree that any harvests above the quota in Period 1 would be paid back out of Period 4.   Councilor Freierman agreed that this would be appropriate. The Council adopted Ms. Freierman's motion.   The vote was 11 in favor; 1 opposed; 1 abstention.

Black Sea Bass

Councilor Freierman made two motions relative to black sea bass:

#1:   that any commercial quota overages/underages from black sea bass Winter Period One (January - March) be rolled into Winter Period Two (October - December).  

Mr. Colvin noted that any underage/overage from the summer period for black sea bass must go into Winter Period Two or it would be lost.   Winter Period Two may end up with a lot of allocation.   Mr. Jordan felt that, if trip limits go higher in Winter Period One, he doesn't believe all uncaught quota from that period should roll to Winter Period Two; some should go to the Summer Period.   Councilor Danielson stated that she supported the motion.    Mr. Colvin said that landings data from 2001 & 2002 suggest that, at higher trip limits in Winter Period One, commercial fishing effort was more concentrated on black sea bass and this resulted in significant catches in Winter One in those two years.   Ms. Freierman's motion #1 was adopted by a vote of 8 in favor; 3 opposed; 1 abstention.  

#2:   that the Winter Period One black sea bass trip limit be raised as soon as possible to 2000 lbs and that, thereafter, this trip limit be lowered once 80% of the Winter Period One allocation has been harvested.

Mr. Colvin said that changing trip limits is made much more problematic by late dealer reports.   Attempts to fine tune a quota are often seriously underdone by late dealer reports.   Late dealer reports make it impossible for the DEC to determine how much fish have actually been caught by any particular date.   The Council adopted this motion by a vote of 12 in favor; 0 opposed; 0 abstentions.

Councilor Jordan moved that the Council recommend that the proposed initial 2004 black sea bass commercial trip limits for the Summer Period (125 lbs.) be reduced to 60 lbs. to avoid closures be required in those periods.   Councilor Mason suggested that the Summer Period, which begins in April, start at 125 lbs and this could be reduced subsequently.   Inshore trawlers don't get access to black sea bass until at least April and then only for a month or so and they could use the higher trip limit.   Mr. Jordan reminded the Council that, in 2003, the initial trip limit for the Summer Period was 100 lbs and a 5-week closure ensued.    Black sea bass were not readily accessible in 2003 as in previous years, especially on the East End and still a 100 lb trip limit produced a 5-week closure.   In his view, if the fish last year had been as accessible as in previous years, the fishery would have had to close much sooner under a 100 lb trip limit.   Mr. Jordan's motion was defeated.   The vote was 2 in favor; 3 opposed; 7 abstentions.

After much discussion, Mr. Jordan proposed another motion:   to recommend that DEC divide the 2004 black sea bass Summer Period into three separate bimonthly segments (April/May; June/July, August/September) with the Summer Period allocation distributed equally between the segments.   The opening trip limit for the April/May segment should be 125 lbs.   The opening trip limit for the other two segments should be 60 lbs.   Allocation overages/underages from the first segment rolled into the June/July segment, overages/underages from which are rolled into the August/September segment, underages/overages from which are rolled into Winter Period Two.   Mr. Jordan's second motion was adopted by a vote of 12 in favor; 0 opposed; 0 abstentions.

Bluefish and Scup

Councilor McBride moved that state management measures for bluefish in 2004 be the same as those in 2003.   Mr. McBride's motion was adopted by a vote of 12 in favor; 0 opposed; 0 abstentions.

Councilor McBride moved that state management measures for commercial fisheries for scup in 2004 be the same as those in 2003.   Mr. McBrides motion was adopted by a vote of 12 in favor; 0 opposed; 0 abstentions.

 

Page last modified Monday, March 29, 2004 by George E. Carroll