Mass. Reps. Call for Investigation of Faulty Fishing Surveys
WASHINGTON, Sept. 19, 2002–Just days before Friday’s annual fisheries forum in Gloucester, the Massachusetts congressional delegation asked the U.S. Commerce Department to address concerns about faulty equipment the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) uses to conduct fish-counting surveys off the New England coast.
The NMFS disclosed last week that the cable attached to scientific survey gear on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship Albatross IV was inaccurately marked and had been used in eight bottom trawl surveys since February 2000.
The NMFS’s Sept. 11 statement explained that the Albatross IV’s cables were not marked consistently at 50-meter intervals. The incorrect markings caused the two cables that hold the trawl net to tow at an angle. This caused fewer fish to be caught and resulted in data suggesting that fish stocks were declining.
Information from such trawl surveys is vital in determining regulated fishing practices in New England. Legislators questioned how two years of faulty data would affect a fishery management plan that the New England Fishery Management Council has ordered to be completed by August 2003.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, Sens. Edward Kennedy and John Kerry and Reps. John Tierney, Barney Frank, and William Delahunt, all Massachusetts Democrats, called for establishment of a Northeast science task force to investigate the effect of having used improperly calibrated equipment for two years.
“We strongly encourage you to establish a Northeast science task force that should include state and regional management experts as well as leading scientific and gear experts, including fishermen,” the letter states.
The letter also highlighted the effects on the local economy. “The potential economic impacts of this management plan on fishing communities in Massachusetts are severe,” it reads. “We therefore wish to stress the importance of removing questions regarding the science that will go into developing this plan.”
The NMFS admission of false data is important to local fishermen, who have been questioning scientists’ results for years.
“This data has caused many people to suffer,” Angela SanFilippo of the Gloucester Fishermen’s Wives Association said in an interview Thursday. The association assists several fishing communities along the North Shore, including Newburyport. “Fishermen have complained that they do not agree with the data and the data that was used was not the best available.”
“I think it’s important that we convince them [fishermen] that we are interested in getting the right science, in getting the right facts,” Tierney said in an interview Wednesday. “And that we only make rules that are based on the correct facts.”
The congressman said he and Frank would address fishermen’s concerns and questions at the ninth annual Gloucester Fisheries Forum.
Tierney called for further action on the matter. “We want a federal and complete investigation as quickly as possible,” he said.
“This letter underscores the critical importance of fostering partnerships with industry, the states and academic institutions in order to ensure that fisheries management decisions are based upon the best science available,” Kerry said in a statement Wednesday.
As of Thursday afternoon, a Commerce Department spokesperson was not prepared to make a public statement until Secretary Evans had responded directly to the legislators.
The lawmakers say they will ask for an extension of next August’s deadline if new, accurate data are not collected in time.
Meanwhile, the NMFS has begun towing gear off the Albatross IV at various depths. They hope to observe net performance by using video equipment and sensors to see how incorrect calibrations might skew fish stock data. Additional work will be conducted from Oct. 15-Oct. 25 to further document gear performance.
Teri Frady, chief of research communications at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, said Thursday she could not yet comment on any results from the new tests.
“It will take time to reliably document how the gear performed and how that might have influenced catch,” a NOAA statement said.
Conrad C. Lautenbacher Jr., the Commerce Undersecretary of for Oceans and Atmosphere, ordered that results be made available to affected fishery councils within 60 days. Following these results, NOAA will convene an independent panel to revise trawl survey procedures and recommend methods for improving collection methods.
Published in The Newburyport Daily News, in Massachusetts.
