The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) recently approved a restructured observer program that extends observer coverage to Alaska’s small boat fleet. With the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) taking over observer deployment, the industry-funded restructured program increases the cost of an observer day from the current $400 to approximately $1,000.
Fourteen fishing organizations representing fishermen from Seattle to Kodiak signed a letter asking NMFS for programmatic changes to control costs, prioritizing observer coverage for high bycatch fisheries and provide Electronic Monitoring (EM) as an alternative to human observers on small boats. For the past three years these same organizations have worked in good faith to develop tools that provide at-sea data from Alaska’s previously unobserved, community based fishing vessels without causing fleet consolidation, job loss, or disruption of business operations. Fishermen have stated their willingness to pay for a program that adequately monitors bycatch and gathers at-sea data from previously unobserved fishing vessels — they simply asked for cost-effective deployment and an alternative that works on small boats. Alaska’s Congressional delegation, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich and Congressman Don Young, supported the fishermen’s request in a strongly worded letter to Acting Secretary of Commerce Rebecca Blank, urging delayed deployment on small vessels until NMFS resolves outstanding deployment issues and implements EM. To date, the request has been ignored and NMFS apparently intends to implement the flawed program in 2013.
Our members are grateful to the Alaska delegation for their support and strong, clear policy directive to NMFS. Finally someone listened, understood, and acted. For three years we have voiced these same concerns to the NPFMC and NMFS with little effect. We continue to ask that NMFS increase coverage on fisheries with significant bycatch concerns and provide alternative monitoring tools before requiring observer coverage on small fishing vessels. Alaska’s Congressional delegation deserves our industry’s thanks for responding to the concerns of coastal fishermen.
Steve Fish Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association
Kelly Harrell Alaska Marine Conservation Council
Dale Kelley Alaska Trollers Association
Eric Olson Fishing Vessel Owners Association
Chuck McCallum Gulf of Alaska Coastal Communities Coalition
Peggy Parker Halibut Association of North America
David Polushkin Kachemak Bay Fisheries
Jim and Rhonda Hubbard Kruzof Fisheries
Buck Laukitis North Pacific Fisheries Association
Brian Lynch Petersburg Vessel Owners Association
Tom McLaughlin Seafood Producers Cooperative
Kathy Hansen Southeast Alaska Fishermen’s Alliance
Roland Maw United Cook Inlet Drift Association
Jeff Stephan United Fishermen’s Marketing Association
Comments (1)
Add commentHo ho ho !!!
Here's an example of how absurd this program is. In Oct. of this year a friend with a 40ft Power Troller (with 600 lbs of halibut quota) received a letter from NOAA stating that his vessel had been selected to participate in this program. Prior to this, this person would catch his small halibut quota in the course of the troll fishery. An efficient low cost means of picking up his poundage, allowing plenty of time to report in for the landings and comply with all of the already ridiculously complicated NOAA regulations.
Now he will be required to report in 72hrs before he leaves on a trip that halibut will be landed in (in addition to the existing reporting requirements). This will be necessary so an observer will have time to be (flown) in to observe on a vessel that is, in no way, designed to accommodate an extra person. This would also eliminate the ability of efficiently catching the poundage in the troll fishery. It will require that he purchase long line fishing gear so that all of the quota can be landed while the observer is aboard. And, as well, require that a crewmember be hired to assist in working the halibut gear, don’t know where he is going to sleep since the boat would already be over capacity. It now doesn’t look like the 600 lbs is going to pay for the trip, let alone leave any profit. I don’t know how weather will be factored in this equation, will the fisherman have to foot the bill for a room for the observer while on the beach waiting for a storm system to pass through? Oh yea, and after the first year of the program the burden of covering the cost of this bureaucratic inefficiency will fall on the fisherman.
With the finite number of observers available in the program the expansion into small boat coverage will be accomplished at the expense of coverage (they will have fewer) for the large vessel western ground fishery. The small boat fleet is responsible for a tiny percentage of the ground fish landed in this state, and contributes very little to any by-catch concerns. On the other-hand the western fleet catches a tremendous quantity of fish in an area with a number of by-catch and environmental concerns associated with the fishery.
I can’t comprehend the thought process behind this rule making and will hold off on any further comment on those involved until after Christmas---Enjoy