The National Marine Fisheries Service plans meetings on St. Thomas and St. Croix to hear what the public has to say about its proposed new Highly Migratory Species rule.
The meetings will be held from on St. Croix at the Buccaneer Hotel from 6 to 9 p.m. April 10 and at 8 a.m. April 11. The St. Thomas meeting will be from 6 to 9 p.m. April 12 at Marriott Frenchman’s Reef Hotel.
In mid-March, the Fisheries Service, an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, announced its plans to implement the new rule to better meet the needs of U.S. Caribbean fishermen.
The new rule deals with bigeye, albacore, yellowfin, and skipjack tunas, Atlantic swordfish and Atlantic sharks. It would cover fishing and the sale by fishermen of those species in local Caribbean markets.
Currently, fishermen are supposed to sell their tuna, swordfish and shark catches to a permitted dealer for resale to customers. While there are two permitted dealers each on St. Thomas and St. Croix, fishermen probably do sell directly to customers, acknowledged Randy Blankinship of the Fisheries Service in an earlier interview.
This has led to fewer Caribbean region fishermen and vessels obtaining required permits and reporting data needed for effective fisheries management.The new rule would bring them into compliance.
According to Blankinship, there would be no limit on the number of Highly Migratory Species Caribbean Small Boat Commercial Permits issued.
The proposed management measures include specific authorized species and retention limits, modification of reporting requirements, authorization of specific gears, vessel size restrictions and consideration of mandatory workshop training.
Blankinship previously said initially the catch limit, which the Fisheries Service calls retention limits, for shark would be set at zero. If shark fishing was allowed, dealers would have to attend an identification workshop.
There are several alternatives, but Blankinship said the preferred alternative for tuna would be set at 10 per trip per vessel. The preferred alternative for swordfish would be set at two per trip per vessel.
The preferred alternative for tuna fishing would be hand held gear including rod and reel, hand line, harpoon, bandit gear, green stick gear and buoy gear. Blankinship said buoy gear is usually called yoyo gear in the Virgin Islands.
The preferred alternative for swordfish fishing would be rod and reel, hand line, harpoon, bandit gear and yoyo gear. If shark fishing is allowed, the preferred alternative would be rod and reel, hand line and bandit gear.
Blankinship said the preferred alternative for vessel length would be less than 45 feet.
Additionally, the Fisheries Service proposes to stipulate that this permit could not be held in combination with any other highly migratory species permit.
If you can’t attend the meetings, the Fisheries Service still wants to know what you think. The deadline for commenting is June 14. Blankinship said he expects the rule to be in place by the end of the year.
To comment, visit www.regulations.gov, send a fax to 301-713-1917 or mail to Margo Schulze-Haugen, 1315 East-West Highway, NMFS/SF1, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
For more on the proposed rule, visit www.federalregister.gov/articles/2012/03/16/2012-6455/highly-migratory-species-2006-consolidated-highly-migratory-species-fishery-management-plan.
