Overfishing has led to a shorter fishing season in federal waters for triggerfish, filefish and lobster on St. Croix and grouper in the St. Thomas/St. John district, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced in a news release late Wednesday.
The season for triggerfish and filefish on St. Croix will end Nov. 21. The lobster season on St. Croix will end Dec. 19. The grouper season will end Dec. 20 on St. Thomas and St. John. These are the dates when NOAA projects fishermen will reach the quotas.
“On Jan. 1, 2014, the fisheries will reopen as they were,” Bill Arnold, Caribbean chief at NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, said Thursday.
According to NOAA, the annual catch limits for combined trigger fish and file fish are 24,980 pounds on St. Croix. In 2011, fishermen on St. Croix caught 26,453 pounds of the fish or 5.9 percent over the limit.
The annual catch limit for lobster on St. Croix stands at 109,708 pounds. In 2011, fishermen caught an average of 107,307 pounds, or 2.2 percent over the limit.
As for grouper on St. Thomas and St. John, the annual catch limit stands at 51,849 pounds. In the years 2010 and 2011, fishermen in that district caught an average of 56,833 pounds per year, or 9.6 percent over the limit.
There are no plans to similarly shorten the seasons in place in local waters. Roy Pemberton, who heads the Planning and Natural Resources Department’s Fish and Wildlife Division, said. He said that at that time of the year fishermen don’t tend to fish in federal waters anyway because the water is rough.
“And on St. Croix, they’re in small boats,” Pemberton said.
According to Arnold, annual catch limits were put in place in 2012. He said the agency is working toward a three-year average to determine the annual catch, but is currently working on 2010 and 2011 data for grouper and 2011 for lobster and triggerfish and filefish.
Federal waters extend from three miles off shore to up to 200 miles, where the waters become international.
The shortened season comes under the regulations for the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Fishery of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Fishery Management Plan for the Spiny Lobster Fishery of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
