# Presentation: 534771

## Scoping for Amendment 3 to the 2006 Consolidated Atlantic Highly Migratory Species (HMS) Fishery Management Plan (FMP)

- Highly Migratory Species
- Management Division
- NMFS/NOAA

## Presentation Objectives

- _Purpose_: to listen to your ideas on the issues and options for shark management measures in the upcoming amendment on small coastal sharks.
- This presentation will give you:
- The current status of small coastal sharks (SCS)
- A summary of current regulations and comments received to date
- Some potential options and issues for the upcoming amendment
- Information on where to send comments will be given at the end of this presentation.

## Latest Small Coastal Sharks (SCS) Stock Assessment

| Species | Overfished | Overfishing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Atlantic sharpnose | No | No |
| Blacknose | Yes (rebuild in 11 yrs) | Yes |
| Bonnethead | No | No |
| Finetooth | No | No |

## Blacknose Mortality by Gear Type from 1999-2005

| Commercial  |  |  |  |  |  | Recreational  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Average wt = 4.97 lbs dw |  |  |  |  |  | Average wt = 1.5 lbs dw   |
| Longline (number) | Nets (number) | Lines (number) | BLL Discards (number)  | GOM Shrimp bycatch (number) | SA Shrimp bycatch (number)  | Landings (number) |
| 8,091 | 19,041 | 352 | 5,007 | 38,626 | 4,856 | 10,408 |
| 9% | 22% | 0% | 6% | 45% | 6% | 12% |

## Need for Action

- Based on latest SCS stock assessment, new management measures are needed because blacknose sharks are overfished with overfishing occurring
- Expected Timeframe: Final measures effective January 1, 2010
- Potential objectives
- Rebuild/prevent overfishing of blacknose and other species, as needed
- Sustainable fishery for other SCS
- Improve monitoring and compliance

## Current Commercial Management Measures for SCS

- Quotas – 1 region & 1 season; adjusted annually based on over- and underharvests, depending on status
- No SCS trip limit for directed permit holders; 16 SCS and pelagic sharks (combined) per trip for incidental permit holders
- Fins _must_ be naturally attached through offloading
- Authorized gears (gillnet, longline, handline, bandit gear)
- Vessel Limited Access Permits – directed and incidental & upgrading restrictions
- Vessel reporting & observer requirements
- Dealer permits, reporting, carcass ID certification, & handling and release workshops

## Other Current Shark Management Measures

- Recreational Management Measures Include:
- Authorized gears
- Authorized species
- Landing requirements (incl. fins naturally attached)
- Minimum sizes
- Retention limits
- Additional Management Measures Include:
- Display quotas and collection of sharks through exempted fishing permits, display permits, and scientific research permits

## New Shark Management Measures

- Comments received to date regarding the Notice of Intent (May 7, 2008, 73 FR 25665) are summarized in the next few slides.
- Based on the comments to date and the stock assessments, NMFS has identified some potential issues and options.

## Comments Received To Date

- _Stock Assessments and Data_
- Blacknose sharks are not overfished; the validity of the models used to determine blacknose sharks are depleted are questionable
- NMFS should have assessed blacknose sharks as two separate populations (Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic)
- SCS catch in the past may have been inflated due to mis-identifying LCS as SCS (to preserve LCS quota)
- _Recreational Fishery and Management Measures_
- Blacknose sharks are not caught in the recreational fishery off the coast of Texas
- NMFS should increase the recreational trip limit for Atlantic sharpnose
- Recreational fishermen should be able to land blacknose sharks; blacknose bycatch in the shrimp trawl fishery is the problem

**Notes:**
Read comments

## Comments Received To Date

- _Commercial Fisheries_
- There are abundant populations of both adult and juvenile blacknose sharks off south Florida
- Blacknose sharks could be vulnerable to overfishing in certain areas (e.g., off the coast of South Carolina)
- The average size of blacknose sharks caught in bottom longline fisheries is larger than the bycatch in the shrimp trawl fishery
- NMFS should look at the Trip Intercept Program data to determine catch composition of sharks in the U.S. Caribbean
- There have been large decreases in shrimp trawl effort since the blacknose stock assessment (2005); the red snapper fishery has bycatch limits in place that may help reduce blacknose bycatch

**Notes:**
Read comments

## Comments Received To Date

- _Commercial Management Measures_
- Prohibiting blacknose sharks in the Atlantic shark fishery will put gillnet fishermen out of business
- Most commercial trucking carriers will not pick up shark product if they are required to get a dealer permit
- NMFS should work towards species-specific and/or regional management for SCS
- NMFS should consider gear restrictions to limit dead discards of sharks
- NMFS should institute an individual transfer quota (ITQ) system
- NMFS should buyout the commercial shark fishery and shut down the fishery

**Notes:**
Read comments

## Comments Received To Date

- _Commercial Management Measures (cont.)_
- NMFS should consider the existing reef fish bottom longline boundaries as closed areas for shark longlines to reduce juvenile bycatch in the Gulf of Mexico
- _Other Considerations_
- NMFS should not decrease the public display and research quota for sharks; this quota has never been filled, and it is conservation oriented

**Notes:**
Read comments

## Issues and Options

_**Issue**_**:** Rebuild blacknose sharks
_**Options**_**: **
***Commercial fisheries***
- Remove blacknose sharks from commercial SCS quota
- Create a blacknose-specific quota
- Establish bycatch caps
- Work with GOM and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils to reduce blacknose bycatch mortality in shrimp trawls and other fisheries, if needed
- Establish an Individual Fishing Quota system

## Issues and Options

_**Issue**_**:** Rebuild blacknose sharks (continued)
_**Options**_**: **
***Commercial fisheries***
- Consider time/area closures
- Revise trip limits for incidental commercial fishermen
- Gillnet endorsement (limit future gillnet effort)
- Commercial gear modifications (circle hook requirement, number of hooks, length of longline, gillnet length, mesh size) to reduce blacknose discards
- Others?

## Issues and Options

_**Issue**_: Rebuild blacknose sharks
_**Options**_:
***Recreational fisheries ***
- Outreach to recreational anglers on regulations and species identification
- Revise bag limit
- Do not allow possession of blacknose sharks in the recreational fishery

## Issues and Options 

_**Issue**_: Rebuild blacknose sharks (continued)
_**Options**_:
***Recreational fisheries ***
- Create seasons and/or closed areas for the recreational fishery
- Require reporting for recreationally landed shark species
- Others?

## Issues and Options

_**Issue**_: Additional Species Considerations
_**Options**_:
- Add smooth dogfish to management unit
- Add ragged-tooth sharks (*Odontaspis ferox*) to the prohibited species list
- Add Deepwater sharks to management unit
- Additional management measures for common thresher
- Additional management measures for pelagic sharks
- Others?

## Issues and Options

_**Issue**_: Increase compliance with HMS regulations and improve Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) reporting and vessel reporting
_**Options**_:
- Establish electronic vessel reporting
- Increase VMS transmission frequency
- Add hail-in & hail-out requirements
- Others?

## Issues and Options

_**Issue**_: Improve agency’s ability to monitor and implement appropriate quotas
_**Options**_:
- Establish regions for SCS
- Establish electronic dealer reporting
- Modify dealer reporting time
- Require all shark product to be offloaded to a dealer
- Others?

## Issues and Options

- Any additional comments and/or issues and options?

## Scoping Meetings – Summer/Fall 2008

| Date | Time | Meeting Locations | Address |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 7/30/08 | 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. | Freeport Branch Library | 410 Brazosport Blvd, Freeport, TX 77541 |
| 8/27/08 | 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.  | NOAA Fisheries Service, Southeast Regional Office  | 263 13th Avenue South, Saint Petersburg, Florida 33701  |
| 8/28/08 | 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.  | Fort Pierce Library  | 101 Melody Lane, Fort Pierce, FL 34950  |
| 10/9/08 | 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. | Peabody Institute Library | 82 Main Street, Peabody, MA 01960 |

## Tentative Timeline

- Scoping: Summer/Fall 2008
- Predraft: December 2008/January 2009
- Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and Proposed Rule: Summer 2009, 60 day comment period
- Final EIS: November 2009
- Final Rule: December 2009; Effective Jan. 1, 2010

## Comments/Questions

- Send Comments by 5pm, October 31, 2008
**Mail:**
- Karyl Brewster-Geisz, HMS Management Division, F/SF1, Office of Sustainable Fisheries, 1315 East West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910 – indicate “Scoping Comments on Amendment 3 to the HMS FMP” on envelope
**Email box:**
**SCS_Scoping@noaa.gov**
**FAX: **
- 301-713-1917
- Indicate “Scoping Comments on Amendment 3 to the HMS FMP”

## *Spawning stock fecundity (SSF) or spawning stock number (SSN) was used as a proxy of biomass when biomass (B) does not influence pup production in sharks.  For finetooth stocks, N was used to estimate biomass levels due to data limitations; therefore, only surplus production models were run. 

| Species | Current
Relative 
Biomass Level* | Current 
Biomass
(N2005) | Stock
Abundance
(NMSY) | Minimum 
Stock Size 
Threshold 
(MSST) | Current 
Relative
Fishing 
Mortality Rate
(F2005/FMSY) | Maximum 
Fishing 
Mortality 
Threshold 
(FMSY) | Outlook |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Atlantic 
Sharpnose 
Sharks | 1.47
(SSF2005/SSFMSY) | 5.96E+06  | 4.45E+06  | 4.09E+06 | 0.74 | 0.19 | Not overfished; overfishing is not occurring |
| Blacknose 
Sharks | 0.48
(SSF2005/SSFMSY) | 3.49E+05  | 5.7E+05  | 4.3E+05 | 3.77 | 0.07 | Overfished; Overfishing is occurring |
| Bonnethead 
Sharks | 1.13
(SSF2005/SSFMSY) | 1.59E+06  | 1.92E+06  | 1.4E+06 | 0.61 | 0.31 | Not overfished; overfishing is not occurring |
| Finetooth 
Sharks | 1.80
(N2005/NMSY) | 6.00E+06  | 3.20E+06  | 2.4E+06 | 0.17 | 0.03 | Not overfished; Overfishing is not occurring |

- *Spawning stock fecundity (SSF) or spawning stock number (SSN) was used as a proxy of biomass when biomass (B) does not influence pup production in sharks.  For finetooth stocks, N was used to estimate biomass levels due to data limitations; therefore, only surplus production models were run.