Black sea bass have suffered from several years of spotty council management. In 2005 and 2006 the council recommended higher catch levels against the advice of the scientific advisors. Fortunately, NMFS overruled the council in 2006 and lowered the catch level for the 2007 fishing year by 1.5 million pounds. Black sea bass was in its final year of rebuilding with 2010 as the rebuilding deadline. A staff memorandum from July 2008 was prescient; it noted that the stock “has been in a state of decline” and “strong year classes on abundance appear to be diminishing.”

It is unclear what catch limits will be for 2010, but reviewers (including the Network) are encouraging the Science and Statistical Committee to consider the uncertainty in the stock status when recommending catch levels. New federal fisheries law requires the regional fishery councils to end overfishing by implementing a rebuilding plan that prevents overfishing.

Council moves forward with Omnibus Amendment to Address Annual Catch Limits/Accountability Measures

On January 16, 2009, the public was finally offered a glimpse into how the National Marine Fisheries Service and the regional fishery management councils were going to fulfill the new Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act’s requirement to end overfishing immediately. One of the tools for accomplishing this task is the use of ACLs/AMs (Annual Catch Limits/Accountability Measures).

The Council will use an Omnibus Amendment to satisfy the requirements of developing ACLs and AMs for its managed species. Annual Catch Limits are designed to establish a catch threshold that cannot be exceeded and includes buffers to increase the likelihood that the limit will not be exceeded inadvertently. Accountability Measures are supposed to prevent the ACL from being exceeded and to provide a mechanism to correct any overages of the ACL. Under the Magnuson-Stevens Reauthorization Act, the councils have until 2010 to develop measures to address any stocks that are subject to overfishing and 2011 for all other fisheries. Since black sea bass only recently became subject to overfishing, the council will proceed on a timeline to meet the 2011 implementation deadline.

The Council is developing draft plans of its interpretation of the ACL/AM requirement and how it will apply to its fisheries, including those that it jointly manages with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Between now and April 2010, when the Council adopts its public hearing draft on the measures, the Marine Fish Conservation Network will actively work (along with some of our Member groups) to influence the shape of the Omnibus Amendment so it will achieve its purpose of ending overfishing.

Public hearings on the Omnibus Amendment are supposed to occur next year from May through July. In August 2010, the council is expected to approve the Amendment in time for the January 1, 2011 implementation deadline.

Council rolls out the red carpet for industry

For years, the conservation community has seen a number of ways in which its points of view about fisheries management have not been given a fair hearing at Mid Atlantic Fisheries Management Council meetings on issues of import to its members and the general public. Whether the topic is ecosystem-based management, forage fish, or bycatch, conservationists have historically only been given limited opportunities to have their suggestions addressed by the council. In sharp contrast, whenever industry seeks to have its concerns considered, they are given great deference. This situation was clearly on display during the February council meeting that featured almost three hours of the agenda being devoted to a public workshop to reduce butterfish bycatch.

Prompted by Amendment 10, also known as the butterfish rebuilding plan, which calls for a reduction in butterfish bycatch by implementing an increased mesh size in 2010 and a butterfish bycatch cap that may occur in 2011, industry was afforded most of an afternoon to suggest ways to voluntarily reduce butterfish bycatch, short of closing the fishery once the butterfish bycatch and landings exceed the cap. Since 2005 when butterfish was declared overfished, industry has had over three years to suggest ways to reduce butterfish bycatch. When they did comment during the development of Amendment 10, industry called for more delay until the stock assessment was conducted, now scheduled for later this year. Most of the suggestions made by industry during the workshop already appear on the website of the leading industry opponent of Amendment 10.

The Network calls on the National Marine Fisheries Service to implement the butterfish bycatch cap in 2010 and not 2011 as industry and the council support. As an important forage fish for a whole host of predator fish and mammals, butterfish do not have the luxury of time. When the meaningful measures to reduce butterfish are implemented in 2011, it will be over 6 years that a rebuilding plan should have been put in place by the council and NMFS.