Regulators angle for feedback on tuna quotas

MANTE, N.C. 

Fishery regulators are asking fishermen for suggestions on how to catch more bluefin tuna, while at the same time looking for feedback on a program that would help rebuild the stock.

As part of a public outreach to fishermen on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration held a meeting on Thursday in Manteo to gather comments on potential changes in regulations.

Fishery managers are looking at ways to better use available quotas and at the possibility of implementing a catch share system for bluefin, sharks and swordfish. They are also seeking suggestions on improvements in the permitting system and ways to reduce bycatch - species caught unintentionally.

"This is an effort to broaden the discussion to gain more public input on these related issues," said Randy Blankinship, NOAA fishery management specialist.

For reasons that are unclear, U.S. fishermen have been catching tons less of the Atlantic bluefin stock than the amount allocated by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas since 2004. Some scientists have said bluefin stocks in the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean are being overfished, in turn depleting stocks in the Western Atlantic.

"There's a big concern that if the U.S. can't land its quota, it could lose a portion of it," Blankinship told a small group of Hatteras Island fishermen.

For a number of years, Hatteras anglers and watermen said they'd get mostly leftovers of the Atlantic Coast quota, with most of it caught by Northern fishermen before the migrating tuna reached North Carolina. But in recent years, the quotas have been spread out over the year, to give Southern fishermen more of a chance.

Rom Whitaker, a Hatteras charter boat captain, said Northern fishermen are still getting most of the bluefin tuna that's caught.

"I'm not just arguing for North Carolina," he said. "It's time that we do something fair and equitable."

Catch shares and limited access privilege programs, known as LAPPs, establish a total available quota and then divvy it up to fishermen, who can trade shares.

They're favored by the Obama administration as a way to rebuild overfished species, reduce overfishing and promote safer, more efficient and economically beneficial fishing.

"Maybe I don't understand," said Ernie Foster, who runs the Albatross Fleet out of Hatteras. "The concept of me catching more by catching less is kind of hard to understand," he said of the seemingly conflicting goals of catching more of the quota while rebuilding the stocks.

Sarah McLaughlin, NOAA fishery management specialist, said rebuilding is designed to happen within the quota that has been scientifically established.

McLaughlin said the agency wants to hear as much as possible from fishermen before revising any regulations.

Foster said catch share programs, which are designed to limit the number of fishermen sharing a quota, may not be workable in the traditional Outer Banks fishing communities.

"The purpose is to decrease the number of fishermen, not increase the number of fishermen," Foster said. "I think it is disingenuous to suggest that all fishermen will be better off.

"It should concern anybody who lives in a community of fishermen who depend on each other."

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com