Contact: Scott Smullen FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
1/6/97
The National Marine Fisheries Service has published the final List of Fisheries for 1997, which classifies each U.S. commercial fishery based on its level of interaction with marine mammals. This final list reclassifies fisheries into Category I, II, or III, makes several technical changes to the names and descriptions of several fisheries, and refines regulatory language to promote increased state and federal coordination of fisheries registration under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
As part of the final List of Fisheries, NMFS reclassified the Gulf of Maine/Mid-Atlantic lobster trap/pot fishery from Category III into Category I due to its impact on the endangered North Atlantic right whale population. Between 1990 and 1994, two critically endangered northern right whales, nine endangered humpback whales, and six minke whales were seriously injured or killed by entanglement in lobster pot gear in these areas. The agency is investigating an additional two reports of entanglements of humpback whales.
Participants in Category I and II fisheries, those fisheries known to have frequent or occasional interactions with marine mammals, are required to register with NMFS under the Marine Mammal Authorization Program (MMAP). To reduce some of the annual administrative burden this program places on fishermen and on agency resources, NMFS is striving to automate registration of fisheries wherever possible through cooperative transfer of data from state and federal permit databases into the MMAP.
In the Northeast, NMFS has automated registration of the federal multispecies sink gillnet fishery, the federal squid/mackerel/butterfish trawl fishery, and all 13,000 state and federal commercial lobster trap/pot fishermen. The NMFS Alaska Region is also successfully integrating MMAP registration with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Nearly 5,400 Alaska fishermen in Category II fisheries will be registered in the MMAP automatically.
Legally permitted participants in those fisheries are not required to submit an MMAP registration or renewal form to receive or validate their MMAP Authorization Certificates for 1997. Also, the annual $25 fee will be waived for participants in the fisheries with integrated registration.
As part of the final List of Fisheries, NMFS has reclassified the California squid purse seine fishery from Category III to Category II due to a historical record of serious injuries and mortalities of pilot whales and new information about the overlap in the location of the pilot whales and the fishery.
Minor changes to the final list include: combining the offshore monkfish bottom gillnet fishery with the New England sink gillnet fishery or the Mid-Atlantic coastal gillnet fishery; redefining the geographic boundary between the New England sink gillnet fishery and the Mid-Atlantic coastal gillnet fishery; and combining the Gulf of Maine mackerel trawl fishery with the squid, mackerel, butterfish trawl fishery. The Atlantic large pelagic pair trawl fishery has been removed from the List of Fisheries as its experimental fishing permit has expired.
The List of Fisheries, which must be published annually by NMFS, classifies fisheries based on a two-tiered, stock-specific approach that first addresses the total impact of all fisheries on each marine mammal stock and then addresses the impact of individual fisheries on each stock. The annual rate of marine mammals seriously injured or killed incidental to commercial fisheries is compared to the Potential Biological Removal (PBR) level for each stock. The PBR is defined as the maximum number of animals that may be removed from a marine mammal stock while allowing that stock to reach or maintain its optimum sustainable population. Tier 1 considers the cumulative fishery mortality and serious injury for a particular stock, while Tier 2 considers fishery-specific mortality and serious injury for a particular stock.
Tier 1: If the total annual mortality and serious injury across
all fisheries that interact with a stock is less than or equal to 10
percent of the PBR of such a stock, then all fisheries interacting
with that stock would be placed in Category III. Otherwise,
these fisheries are subject to the next tier to determine
their classification.
Tier 2 - Category I: Annual mortality and serious injury of a
stock in a given fishery is greater than or equal to 50 percent of
the PBR level.
Tier 2 - Category II: Annual mortality and serious injury in a
given fishery is greater than 1 percent and less than 50 percent of
the PBR level.
Tier 2 - Category III: Annual mortality and serious injury in a
given fishery is less than or equal to 1 percent of the PBR level.
Commercial fishermen who participate in fisheries placed in Category I or II must register in the Marine Mammal Assessment Program and submit a $25 fee unless registration has been integrated with a pre-existing state or federal registration program. The Marine Mammal Protection Act requires that all commercial fishermen submit a report to the fisheries service within 48 hours of the end of each fishing trip if they have injured or killed a marine mammal incidental to fishing operations.
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