Some parts of the Gulf of Maine will be closed to gillnet fishermen this October and November because the fishery has exceeded the allowable take of harbor porpoises caught as by-catch, NOAA officials announced in April. The closure most likely will repeat in October and November 2013, as the fishery already has exceeded its two-year average of harbor porpoise by-catch in a single year. The closure area will stretch the coastal waters between Cape Elizabeth and Boston, according to a NOAA map.
In a somewhat contentious April 26 conference call on the closures, fishing industry stakeholders raised questions about NOAA’s methodology to determine the need for a closure. They also questioned the reliability of the technology fishermen are mandated to use to avoid accidental porpoise ensnarement.
In 1998, NOAA officials formed take reduction teams of stakeholders in an effort to create regulations to reduce harbor porpoise by-catch. Under the agency’s management plan, porpoise catch mortality declined until 2005, but then deaths began to climb again in recent years. In 2010, the agency’s rules were modified to try and bring the mortality events back down. New regulations were put into place that would trigger closures if porpoise by-catch exceeded the mandated thresholds over a two-year average. The regulations would focus on the two areas in the Gulf of Maine and south of Cape Cod that experienced the most porpoise deaths from gillnet fishing.
The goal in the Gulf of Maine was to average one harbor porpoise take per every 71,117 pounds of observed landings in the region. Officials and stakeholders focused on increasing compliance of the mandated use of pingers, or devices embedded in gillnets that send a sound to repel harbor porpoises from the nets.
But the results from the first year of monitoring under the new regulations seems to show these efforts initially have failed. In the Gulf of Maine, the goal was an average of 0.031 porpoise takes per observed landing. In 2010-2011, fishermen instead landed 0.078 takes per observed landing, more than double the threshold, said Michael Asaro, a NOAA marine mammal specialist.
During the April 26 conference call, officials pointed to a low compliance rate of pinger use for the high take rate. Observers found Gulf of Maine gillnet fishermen only were in full compliance with pinger use 41 percent of the time. Even though 2011-2012 figures have not been fully collected, NOAA officials expect the same area to be closed in the gulf in 2013.
“It’s nearly impossible for the by-catch rate in year two to go below the threshold,” Asaro said.
In contrast, gillnet fishermen south of Cape Cod have little to fear in the second year, as their first year catch rate was nearly half the allowable two-year average. In the first year, they had a porpoise take rate of 0.012 per observed landing. Officials said pinger compliance rate was much higher, 65 percent, in southern New England than in the northern part of the region.
The news of closures left gillnet fishing stakeholders in the Gulf of Maine searching for answers. Jackie Odell, executive director of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, expressed disappointment at the reported low compliance rate. The coalition led a $100,000 effort to buy pingers for Gloucester fishermen who couldn’t afford the equipment. It was strange to hear their efforts fell short, she said.
“We’re just perplexed by the compliance report,” Odell said. “It’s confusing to us.”
Erik Anderson of the New Hampshire Commercial Fishermen’s Association expressed frustration that the closure would impact all fishermen, including those who have been following the rules.
“You still have a majority of the people who were still in compliance,” Anderson said.
Odell said the closures will hurt groundfishermen who are already struggling with the cost of switching to sectors, since October and November is a prime fishing time for flounder, one of the most abundant fish available to target under the sectors plan.
Some stakeholders wondered whether the porpoise by-catch methodology took the new fishing numbers from sector management sufficiently into account, since sectors represents a radical change in the way groundfish are caught. Erin Burke, a Massachusetts state aquatic biologist, hoped NOAA is using as much of the post-sectors data as possible to create an accurate picture.
“If there’s going to be a closure, we want to make sure that we’re getting the most bang for our buck out of it,” Burke said.
Take reduction team members will meet to discuss how to move forward to lower porpoise mortality and deal with the closures on May 8at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in Portland.