ABTA , Bluefin Commercial and recreational quota reduction because of excessive Long Line discards

[bampy]

Attention All Bluefin Tuna Recreational and Commercial Fishermen!!
NMFS proposes to Re-allocate all User Group BFT Quota Shares for 2011 Fishing Season. The Pelagic Longline Category to be awarded 28% of US quota while General Category reduced to 39% to continue Dead Discards at Sea. All other categories including Angling, Harpoon and Reserve To Be Gutted for LONGLINE BOATS to Continue Discards!!! Read On!

1. New proposed 2011 NMFS Quota Rule will deduct 160 metric tons of U.S. Total Allowable Catch and Use this Quota to Cover Estimated Longline Discards in 2011. This tonnage could increase and provide NMFS with precedent to take even more quota to allow for Higher Dead Discards. In addition, NMFS proposes to allow 69.5 mt landings quota for longlines.

2. This transfer to Longliners will result in Reduced Bag Limits, Shorter Regional Fishing Seasons, Early Closures and tremendous financial losses for General and Angling and Harpoon fisheries.

3. Adding insult to our injury this year, NMFS is currently allowing the LONGLINE fleet to continue a repeat of this process and the unacceptable damage on all other recreational and commercial traditional fishermen from Maine to Texas for the 2012 fishing season as well, with only minimal changes to the longline bag limits and zero proposals to effectively curtail their fishing season.

4. The NOAA proposal that the General, Harpoon, Angling and Purse Seine categories carry the burden of longline discards would result in the lowest ever starting quotas in 2011 for the General, Harpoon, Purse Seine and Reserve categories since these Traditional and Historical Catch Share Categories were initiated in 1981.

5. The new 2011 quotas will result in the longline category receiving an increase in U.S. quota from 8.1% to about 28% of the quota. NOAA has been aware of this impending crisis and excessive dead discard for many years and has done nothing to improve NOAA awareness of real time longline discards and reduce or end the longline fishery in season. Closure of a category has been the sacred rule NOAA has followed for all other categories when a category exhausts its historical share.

6. In the interest of due process and adequate public consideration and airing of the NOAA proposed non solution to the longline discard crisis, the American Bluefin Tuna Association has already insisted that the comment period be extended for 45 days and that numerous additional regional public hearings be scheduled. At a minimum, public hearings must be held in Portland, ME, Boston, MA, Hyannis, MA, Long Island, NY, Miami, FL and New Orleans, LA.. THIS DISCARD CRISIS CAN NO LONGER BE SWEPT UNDER THE RUG!!

The American Bluefin Tuna Association needs your help to prevent NOAA from allowing their SCANDALOUS & OUTRAGEOUS plan to go forward. Following are the NAMES, EMAIL ADDRESSES OF RESPONSIBLE NOAA OFFICIALS WHO CAN STOP THIS TRAVESTY FROM GOING ANY FURTHER AND PRESERVE YOUR RIGHT TO YOUR SHARE OF THE U.S. TAC IN 2011 and 2012. Please write the NOAA leadership. Also, open the attachment and follow the instructions to submit your written comment on the "proposed rule" and view public meeting schedule. Don't let NOAA forget who you are!

TO PRESERVE YOUR RIGHT TO FISH FOR THE MAGNIFICENT BLUEFIN TUNA CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES, FISHING BUDDIES, SHARE THIS ALERT ON WEBSITES AND MAIL TO YOUR ADDRESS BOOKS.

If you have any questions or desire more detailed information, please feel free to contact the ABTA at info@theabta.com Remember, NOAA Protected Resources is also working to list bluefin tuna as an Endangered Species despite evidence bluefin are rebuilt in the West Atlantic.

NOAA Contacts


Eric Schwaab
301-713-2239, ext. 195
Eric.schwaab@noaa.gov

Margaret Spring
NOAA Chief of Staff
202-482-3436
Margaret.spring@noaa.gov

Samuel Rauch
Deputy ***. Administrator for Regulatory Programs
301-713-2239, ext. 193
Samuel.rauch@noaa.gov

Russell Smith
Deputy. Asst. Secretary for Int’l Fisheries
202-482-5682
Russell.smith@noaa.gov

Margo Schulze-Haugen
Chief, HMS Division
301-713-2347, ext. 108
margo.schulze-haugen@noaa.gov

Sarah McLaughlin
Fishery Management Specialist
978-281-9260
Sarah.McLaughlin@noaa.gov

Emily Menashes
Deputy Director, Office of Sustainable Fisheries
301-713-2334
Emily.menashes@noaa.gov

[Heli Sports]

New proposed 2011 NMFS Quota Rule will deduct 160 metric tons of U.S. Total Allowable Catch and Use this Quota to Cover Estimated Longline Discards in 2011. This tonnage could increase and provide NMFS with precedent to take even more quota to allow for Higher Dead Discards. In addition, NMFS proposes to allow 69.5 mt landings quota for longlines.

I believe the 160 MT of discards are actually being carried over from 2010, but could you please tell me how the NMFS determined this number.

Is this an estimate based on a history of trip logs and observer coverage of sets?

How accurate is this figure? I believe there are about 75 longline vessels declaring Bluefin landings, so I guess two MT per vessel seems pretty realistic.

Are dead-disards carried over every year and deducted from the entire U.S. quota. I see that in 2009 approximately 172 MT were carried over from 2008 and deducted from the overall quota. Nobody seemed to make much of a fuss at that time. Is this a new protocol, or has this been taking place for a while?

Thanks!

[Captain Greg Sears]

I am so frustrated How can allowing tons of fish to be dumped, be more economical than allowing 300 charter boats to create millions of dollars in economic revenue. I am sick to my stomach thinking about this. And thats my opinion........ What about the recreational guy who would have taken these fish home to eat. What about the dozen or so families who harpoon or R & R these fish for a living. Just so big money companies can monopolize and use resources without repercussion. Its time to crash the doors down on NOAA and any part of any administration that supports these radical and unprecedented regulation changes.

Call out the Militia Lets stampede them with Press, Letters, Emails, Politicians, Law suits, Petitions, Crack addicts willing to break legs for $10. Anything to help change this. Just kidding about the Crack addicts. This is serious!!!!!

[bampy]

I believe the 160 MT of discards are actually being carried over from 2010, but could you please tell me how the NMFS determined this number.

Is this an estimate based on a history of trip logs and observer coverage of sets?

How accurate is this figure? I believe there are about 75 longline vessels declaring Bluefin landings, so I guess two MT per vessel seems pretty realistic.

Are dead-disards carried over every year and deducted from the entire U.S. quota. I see that in 2009 approximately 172 MT were carried over from 2008 and deducted from the overall quota. Nobody seemed to make much of a fuss at that time. Is this a new protocol, or has this been taking place for a while?

Thanks!

The 160 is an estimate determined by observer based trips and then
extrapolated for non observed trips ...then totaled, I personally do not
think it is accurate, I think discards are much greater. It seems to me that
some type of real time accountability is in order and LongLiners need to fix
their own fishery, rather than ignore the discard effect on others.

Longline discards for 2010 are already in the 2010 landing summery. It is
the difference between 813.7 mt and 973.7 at the bottom of the summery page.
The 160 that shows up in the proposed rule is in advance of 2011 fishing
deducted off the top of the new season quota in anticipation. The cover page
of the attachment may explain better than I did.

You are correct that ll discards have been previously accounted for by
deductions from "off the top" of adjusted base quotas in the past. And as in
the past we have had carry over from the previous years to stem the effect.
Now under reduced over-all tac's in the West Atlantic, and ICCAT rule for
carry over being reduced to 10 percent, Long line discards will be taken
from all other user groups.

In the face of an increasing abundance of Bluefin (mainly from reduced
landings in the east) LongLine interactions with Bluefin will continue to
increase, thereby continuing to take from others to cover even more
discards. We feel this needs to stop. Also, allowing HMS "math" to fix the
problem does little to make those accountable for fixing it themselves.

[MarkP]

The hacks at nmfs wouldn't be able to spell cat if you spotted them the c and the t. Bottom line, this is about as logical as you punishing your 15 year old when his 17 year old brother wrecked your car. Astonishing incompetence...

MarkP

[Block and Tackle]

From my understanding of the situation, the discards stand out so much this season because the general cat nearly filled its quota. Therefore there is much less carry over to absorb the large deductions, as there has been for the past few season. Added to the fact that there can only be a 10% carry over from now on and this is a major issue that has been getting swept under the rug for years.

[MarkP]

B&T, the why is less important than the fact that one category is getting screwed for the misdeeds of another...

MarkP

[Block and Tackle]

Mark I am certainly not going to disagree with you on that. Everyone is getting screwed on this. If this dead discards gets changed then each group will get some quota back. Its not like we are going to get all 160mt in the general.

[Heli Sports]

It seems to me thatsome type of real time accountability is in order and LongLiners need to fix their own fishery, rather than ignore the discard effect on others.

Thank you for your reply.

I completely agree. The longline fleet has a long and storied history of abusing this resource, dating back to the mid 1980's when rampant culling and high grading was taking place in a quasi directed Bluefin fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. Misconduct by this fleet still continues with many fish being passed off longliners this past Winter off North Carolina. But I really blame the NMFS for mismanaging this fishery.

In the face of an increasing abundance of Bluefin (mainly from reduced landings in the east) LongLine interactions with Bluefin will continue to increase...

Sashimay made the same point. Quite obviously Bluefin are more prevalent farther offshore then they have been in the past. It's seems inconceivable to me that the NMFS has not expanded time/area closures to reduce interaction by this fleet. Do you know why they havn't?

Fisheries and Oceans Canada seems to be doing a much better job of managing the resource in this area. The Canadian pelagic longline fleet is also permitted a bycatch of Bluefin, but they have more comprehensive observer coverage and the Canadians have a history of temporarily shutting down their swordfishery when too many Bluefin are being caught by that fleet.

Under the current circumstances, any significant quantity of dead discards is totally unaceptable, regardless of how it is allocated. Even relaxed bycatch requirements for the longline fleet would be better than dead discards. I'm surprised the conservation groups have not used this situation in their attempts to shut down our fisheries...

[bampy]

Thank you for your reply.

I completely agree. The longline fleet has a long and storied history of abusing this resource, dating back to the mid 1980's when rampant culling and high grading was taking place in a quasi directed Bluefin fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. Misconduct by this fleet still continues with many fish being passed off longliners this past Winter off North Carolina. But I really blame the NMFS for mismanaging this fishery.



Sashimay made the same point. Quite obviously Bluefin are more prevalent farther offshore then they have been in the past. It's seems inconceivable to me that the NMFS has not expanded time/area closures to reduce interaction by this fleet. Do you know why they havn't?

Fisheries and Oceans Canada seems to be doing a much better job of managing the resource in this area. The Canadian pelagic longline fleet is also permitted a bycatch of Bluefin, but they have more comprehensive observer coverage and the Canadians have a history of temporarily shutting down their swordfishery when too many Bluefin are being caught by that fleet.

Under the current circumstances, any significant quantity of dead discards is totally unaceptable, regardless of how it is allocated. Even relaxed bycatch requirements for the longline fleet would be better than dead discards. I'm surprised the conservation groups have not used this situation in their attempts to shut down our fisheries...

I was researching the Candian fishery today to find out what specific regulation they have. I could not find any on line. It would be a good example for me to bring to the AP meeting in a couple of weeks, still got time so I'll look again.