Tidal Fisheries Advisory Commission

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FEBRUARY 7, 2002 MEETING SUMMARY

Oysters-

· Upper Bay Oyster Reef: DNR Shellfish staff surveyed sites that were recommended by TFAC. The western edge of Gales Lump was more suitable for the project than an individual site to the southwest. Both of these areas have been submitted in a permit application for the project. The stadium material and the seed oysters will be placed somewhere on the western edge and will total about 4 acres. A small amount of shell fines will be planted to receive seed for a comparison with the stadium material.
· Harvest: The oyster harvest on record to date is about 95,000 bushels. Last season's total was 347,968. Harvest for the next two seasons will be very low or lower than this year since spat sets have been low the past few years and mortality has increased. Disease levels are the highest they have ever been.
· Md Department of Transportation Funding: The MDOT Agreement expires this summer and they have agreed to continue funding into the future. MDOT funds have paid for shell planting, some seed planting and staff and other costs of running the oyster program. A formal agreement is to be developed and signed.
· Shell Deposits: No new shell areas will be dredged this summer. DNR will be using old permit areas. Meetings will be convened with the interest groups to discuss the future of shell dredging and areas. Shells are vital for oyster restoration.
· Fall Survey Results: DNR Shellfish staff conduct a yearly survey of oyster bars. The spat set was low (16.7 per bushel) compared to the longterm average of 50 spat per bushel, Dermo is the highest level it has ever been, MSX is distributed throughout more of Maryland this year compared to two years ago, and salinities remain high which accelerates disease and mortality. Based on other surveys, millions of seed oysters recently planted in harvest reserve areas are growing well and their disease levels are low so far.

Organizational Changes- Jill Stevenson has been appointed as the new deputy director for the unit. The new structure will assign specific responsibilities to the new deputy for oversight of Strategic Planning & Administrative and Planning, Policy & Outreach, as well as, assist the director in all other aspects of management of the Fisheries Service. Gina Hunt has moved from the Commercial Striped Bass project over to the Legislative and Regulation Division. Lynn Fegley has been selected as the manager of the new Blue Crab Monitoring & Analysis project. This new project will allow us to place greater emphasis on and lend greater visibility to our blue crab management responsibilities. In addition to the creation of the crab project within the Resource Management program, we are also creating an ad hoc group to work on ecosystem based fisheries management initiatives.

Legislation- Howard King provided an update on legislation that affects Fisheries Service. A list of legislation that affects DNR can be viewed at http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/regulations/legislativeupdate.html . The Commission discussed and voted on the following bills:

Regulations- The emergency striped bass regulations discussed at the previous meeting have been adopted and are in effect until 6/23/02. Proposed permanent regulation changes were discussed. There are additional changes in the permanent regulation package. In summary the proposed regulations will:

· Clarify definitions for enforcement purposes.
· Clarifies commercial seasonal and weekly quota limits and establishes an allowance for all landing limits.
· Allow the Secretary to establish a boat limit for the number of individuals fishing commercially for striped bass in the Atlantic fishery in an effort to restrict the landings per day
· The proposed action will clarify and establish a time frame for the striped bass declaration of intent and will provide for a two week grace period.
· The requirement to return unused striped bass tags at the end of the season will be removed. This will allow tags to be used in several seasons rather than wasting unused tags each season.
· Clarifies commercial seasonal and weekly quota limits and establishes an allowance for all landing limits.
· Prohibits the transferring of striped bass tags without a Department approved license transfer.
· Provides the hook & line fishery the flexibility to check-in harvest by 9 a.m. on the day immediately following harvest.
· It is proposed to require the licensee to check-in his own catch. The ambiguity of the current language has been a hindrance for enforcement.
· Section .12 removes recreational fishing requirements that are no longer necessary for management of this fishery and permits filleting of striped bass on a licensed charterboat as long as the carcass is retained for enforcement purposes.
· Modify the striped bass certification process for pound nets. The certification process has caused some individuals to declare and set more nets than they intended to fish only to receive an allocation. To eliminate these ghost nets, the Department will change the certification requirements as stated in the proposal.

Striped Bass- In order not to over harvest the Chesapeake Bay striped bass stock, Maryland utilizes a quota based harvest management system. Because the stock size of striped bass varies over time, annual quotas for the commercial fishery are established for each year. Because the exploitable stock size (fish of legally harvestable size) will be lower in 2002 than it was in 2001, the commercial quota will also be lower in the 2002 calendar year than in 2001. All commercial gears will share this reduction equally. The Commission discussed allocation of quota for the 2002 calendar year. The Commission's recommendations are as follows:

· Allocate 35% of the gill net quota to February (250,000 lbs).
· Change the monthly allocation of hook and line quota for more quota in the beginning of the season. Manage the fishery on a weekly catch limit rather than a daily catch limit.
· Want the Department to consider increasing gill net opportunities for the December fishery, including permitting more net on board and/or nighttime fishing.
· Need to consider ways to reduce the conflict between recreational and commercial fisherman during the December fishery.

Crabs- Discussed proposed regulations for the 2002 crabbing season. Public comment period is open until 2/25/02. Bill Sieling, Executive Director Chesapeake Bay Seafood Industries Association, introduced The Economic Impact on Maryland's Crabmeat Processing Industry of Proposed Regulations: A Possession Restriction on Sponge Crabs and Smaller than 5 ¼ Inches report by the University of Maryland.

MOTIONS

ACTIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT

Commission supports University of Maryland's economic impact study of the effects of the 5 ¼ hard crab size limit on the processing industry.

Has been accepted as part of the public comment period for the proposed regulations.