It looks like quota cuts are on the horizon for the Georges Bank groundfish fishery.
Recent recommendations from the Canada/U.S. Georges Bank Transboundary Management Guidance Committee (TMGC) include a 25 per cent cut in haddock quotas, a 32 per cent cut for cod quotas and a 53 per cent cut in yellowtail flounder quotas for 2019.
Co-chair of the Committee, Alain d’Entremont, Scotia Harvest Inc., said the 2019 overall recommendation for cod is 650 metric tonnes (a reduction from 950 metric tonnes).
Canada’s share would be 461 metric tonnes (a reduction from 693 metric tonnes). The 2019 overall recommendation for haddock is 30,000 metric tonnes (a reduction from 40,000 metric tonnes). Canada’s share would be 15,000 metric tonnes (a reduction from 24,400 metric tonnes).
The 2019 overall recommendation for yellowtail flounder is 140 metric tonnes (a reduction from 300 metric tonnes), which would be the lowest quota on record. Canada’s share would be 34 metric tonnes (a reduction from 87 metric tonnes).
“The declining trend of the stock remains; total mortality remains high despite record low catches; current levels of catch are not the primary factor affecting stock rebuilding,” states the TMGC 2019 Guidance Report, a summary of U.S./Canada TMGC and steering committee meetings held in Boston on Sept. 11 to 13.
As for cod, which is primarily a bycatch species, “the status of the stock remains poor,” states the report, with “some concerns around the size and potential survival of the 2013-year class, along with concerns for the lack of recent recruitment.”
The report also cited “significant concerns” from the Transboundary Resource Assessment Committee (TRAC) “with all three (stock) assessment approaches,” concluding “results are becoming unreliable for management” and an “alternative approach is ‘urgently required’” calling for a different process going forward that would include developing alternative methods of assessing the stock and providing catch advice.
Haddock is the mainstay of the Georges Bank groundfish fishery, particularly for the 28-vessel, under 65’ mobile gear fleet, which had a landed value of $13,272,030 in 2017, according to DFO statistics. Only 10 vessels in the inshore fixed gear fleet were active on Georges Bank in 2017, with a landed value of $71,611.
However, only 27 per cent of the overall Georges Bank haddock quota was caught in 2017 and its unlikely the 2018 quota will be landed either.
Despite positive signals for the stock, there are concerns over the stock, including:
- declining trends in weight at age (WAA) from 2000 to present, especially in haddock three years and older
- an overestimation of 2013 and 2010-year classes
- large discrepancies between model projected biomass and the average survey biomass,
- uncertainty for the 2013-year class
- incompatibility between survey total mortality and fishing mortality
- and a decline in population abundance estimates.
