CONTACT: Scott Smullen FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/3/97
The National Marine Fisheries Service is offering a series of sweeping proposals to more effectively manage the valuable and highly-competitive Atlantic bluefin tuna fishery for 1997, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.
The fisheries service proposes to establish a new tuna permit program to gather better catch and fishing effort information; prohibit all fishing by General category permit holders on restricted fishing days and prohibit catch of smaller size fish by General category fishers; prohibit use of spotter aircraft except in the Purse Seine category; and split the Angling large school/small medium and trophy category quotas into a North/South division. The fisheries service will hold a series of public hearings to receive comments on these proposals.
The new proposals are the result of comments and suggestions from fishermen and stakeholders as part of two earlier Advanced Notices of Proposed Rulemaking and a commitment by Rolland Schmitten, fisheries service director, to make needed management improvements.
"Last September, I promised to improve our management of this fishery and provide more accountability," said Schmitten. "These measures will give us some effective tools to meet those promises."
The proposed changes to Angling category regulations also are expected to lengthen the fishing season and allow fishermen from a greater geographical area to pursue bluefin for a longer period of time.
Fishermen have expressed concern about the agency's ability to adjust catch limits in a timely manner to avoid overharvest or category closures to meet management or scientific needs. To address this, the agency implemented an interim final rule that allows the fisheries service director to adjust fishing activities in an identified area. This should help ensure that fishing occurs throughout the season and that all fishermen have an equitable opportunity to harvest a portion of the quota. The director will not make a decision until variations in seasonal distribution, abundance, migration patterns or catch rate of bluefin are determined.
In recent years, the fisheries service has received substantial comment suggesting the existing telephone and dockside surveys do not result in timely or accurate catch estimates. Fleet size estimation is considered an important element in the current recreational monitoring system. Therefore, the fisheries service is proposing a new automated tuna permit system. New tuna permits would be required for all permit holders, regardless of the date of expiration indicated on current permits. However, new automated procedures are expected to reduce a fisherman's time and effort on administrative tasks.
According to fisheries service officials, the permit program tracking systems will also accommodate automated catch reporting and reduce its burden while supplying more timely and accurate data than current survey-based reporting. Fisheries service officials also believe proposed revisions requiring anglers to call in their catches to an automated telephone reporting system will improve the service's ability to monitor the Angling category catch. The Large Pelagic Survey will continue to be conducted, and the two reporting systems will be used to improve data gathering.
Finally, the fisheries service is proposing changes to the General category management to reduce the potential for catch limit violations and additional tuna mortality. Officials believe changes to the General category will reduce monitoring difficulties caused by fishermen who may have previously held both General and Angling category permits.
To address concerns about quota monitoring and effective effort controls, the fisheries service proposes to prohibit the retention of bluefin less than the large medium size class by vessels permitted in the General category, and to prohibit all fishing by persons aboard vessels permitted in the General category on designated restricted-fishing days. In addition, General category vessels would be required to complete pelagic fisheries vessel logbooks for all fishing trips. The proposed requirements would improve distribution of fishing opportunities, decrease bluefin mortality, and improve the accuracy of catch estimates for both the Angling and General categories.
Comments on the proposed rule should be sent to: William Hogarth, Acting Chief, Highly Migratory Species Management Division, Office of Sustainable Fisheries (F/SF1), NMFS, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3282.