By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, November 7, 2002 (ENS) - Several environmental groups have allied with the federal government in proposing a nine month delay to the implementation of new fishing restrictions for New England groundfish stocks. The delay comes in the wake of industry allegations that government scientists relied on flawed sampling data techniques to collect data for the new groundfish regulations.

In September government scientists discovered that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Albatross IV, which was used to collect data on New England groundfish, had done so with mismarked cables, leaving some concerned that the net was set at an angle.

NOAA Ship Albatross IV at Woods Hole, Massachusetts (Photo courtesy NOAA)

This caused some tows to be deployed with more cable out on one side of the net than the other, according to NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The gear configuration affected eight resource surveys conducted between the winter of 2000 and the spring of 2002.

The fishing industry has challenged the survey data, arguing that this configuration allowed fish to escape, resulting in undercounted stocks and restrictions that are tighter than necessary. Lobbyists for the industry have called for at least a two year delay to fully probe what they deem to be questionable science.

Environmental groups, NMFS and independent scientists believe the evidence refutes challenges over the integrity of the data. They have asked for the nine month delay so that all interested parties can more thoroughly review the government's stock assessment report released last week and can evaluate the results of ongoing trawl experiments.

"We are investigating whether this trawl warp issue has actually made a difference in the assessment advice we are giving," said NMFS chief of research communications Teri Frady. "That is all that we can do. There will always be those who don't believe it."

She said the government is actively seeking input from all interested parties on how survey assessments are done.

The extension would move the implementation of Amendment 13 to the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan from August 22, 2003 to May 1, 2004.

Amendment 13 will provide a framework to address overfishing and bycatch, as well as to set catch limits on specific New England groundfish species. The draft amendment issued by the New England Fishery Management Council is online at: http://www.nefmc.org/documents/amend13.htm

Groundfish catch is dumped on the deck for sorting. (Photo by Allen Shimada courtesy NOAA)

"We are doing everything we can to get confidence in the science and support for conservation because the best way to make this work is to get everybody on board," said Eric Bilsky, senior attorney with Oceana representing the plaintiffs. "There has to be community support for this."

According to independent experts who reviewed the data at an October meeting in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, there is no evidence that the gear problem resulted in catches that should have been different than what they were.

"The survey conducts nearly a thousand tows per year, in three seasons, over the entire northeast continental shelf, under all kinds of conditions. The evidence to date indicates that the cable offset falls within the range of variability routinely encountered," said Chris Darby, a scientist at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science, a government laboratory in the United Kingdom that participated in studying the data.

At the meeting, experts analyzed videotape and electronic sensors that were deployed to monitor the performance of the net. Scientists also conducted 10 different statistical analyses to detect evidence of any influence on survey data that could be attributed to the gear problem.

This included an analysis to determine how much assessment advice would change if survey catches for the years in question were larger. These tests resulted in virtually no change in management advice for groundfish.

Cod caught by a recreational fisherman off Gloucester, Massachusetts (Photo courtesy Kayman Charters)

Twelve of these species are less than half of their sustainable population levels, and eight species are at less than one-fourth of such levels.

Complaints from the fishing industry, however, have hardly fallen on deaf ears. Fishing restrictions are always controversial, and the debate over New England groundfish is no different. The fear of lost jobs hangs over Amendment 13 and both sides agree this fear will be realized with additional fishing restrictions.

Local politicians, some of who have dubbed Amendment 13 "an obituary for the New England fishing industry," are not the only ones interested in the groundfish regulations.

A host of U.S. senators, including Maine's Republican Senator Olympia Snow and Massachusetts Senators Edward Kennedy and John Kerry, both Democrats, have weighed in with calls for delay. Snow and Kennedy have said they want a two year delay to the implementation of Amendment 13.

"Amendment 13 will have a significant socio-economic impact on our fishing communities. Before imposing further restrictions on this industry, we must take the proper steps to ensure that our decision making is based on sound science," Kennedy said.

"We owe it to the hundreds of fishing families in New England to freeze any further implementation of Amendment 13 until previous errors are corrected and future stock assessments are accurate," he said.

The effort to put new restrictions on catching New England groundfish has been some time coming, with recent roots in the Magnuson-Stevens Act of 1996, passed to halt overfishing and expedite the rebuilding of fish populations.

In December 2001 a federal court found that the plan to manage New England groundfish was not in compliance with the law. The court provided until August 2003 for compliance in New England, the date the government and others are now trying to push back.

"If we set our house in order and restore the fisheries to health, we can sustainably fish and catch three times more fish," Bilsky said. "But there is a lot of fear out there that people will be hurt in the short term because in the short term you have to restrain yourself and allow fish to breed."

"There is also a lot of fear that a sustainable fishery, even though it will catch more fish, will be a restructured fishery so there will be winners and losers," the attorney said. "People are afraid of being the losers."

NMFS is proceeding under its existing time frame to implement Amendment 13 as it awaits action by the court on its motion for a nine month delay.

Related Links:

National Marine Fisheries Service: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/

Oceana: www.oceana.org

Northeast Seafood Coalition: http://www.nefishlaw.com/nsc/nscwelcome.htm

Brief history of the New England groundfishing industry: http://www.nefsc.noaa.gov/library/groundfish/grndfsh1.html