FISH TRAP REDUCTION STEERING
COMMITTEE: ST. CROIX DISTRICT
VOTING MEMBERS
THOMAS DALEY (CHAIRMAN)
HOMER KELLY
GERSON MARTINEZ
HANS LARSEN
FRANK JOHNSON
WAYNE HARVEY
NORRIS BENJAMIN
STACHEL PARKER
NON-VOTING
TONY IAROCCI
EDWARD SCHUSTER
CARLOS FARCHETTE
COORDINATOR
Dept. of Planning and Natural Resources
Division of Fish and Wildlife
•
Preserve and protect the historical and cultural
trap fishery in a sustainable manner by:
o
Limiting participation in the fishery
o
Capping maximum number of allowable traps/fisher
o
Reducing number of traps by about 10% relative to
sum total of maximum number of traps recorded by
each individual fisher between February 10, 2006 and
February 10, 2011
NOTE: After some discussion, the Committee determined
they will address the lobster trap fishery through a
separate plan/initiative
•
Initial Eligibility
•
Initial Allocation
•
Effort Reduction Strategy
•
Transferability
•
Monitoring/Enforcement
•
Appeals/General Oversight
 Current
•
All fishers who held a USVI commercial fishing
license and recorded landings with fish trap gear on
commercial catch records between February 10,
2008 and February 10, 2011 would be eligible to
receive a fish trap endorsement to their USVI
commercial fishing license
 Net
•
Proposed
Result/Effect
Based on DPNR commercial catch record data, 39-41
fishers would meet this eligibility criterion (2 are
deceased)
Current Proposed
• The number of tags allocated each fisher would be
determined based on the maximum number of traps each
recorded on commercial catch records between February
10, 2006 and February 10, 2011, reduced by 10%.
• The maximum number of trap tags that any fisher could
receive as an initial allocation (or hold at any given time
thereafter) is 150.
NOTE: The Steering Committee is not proposing to specify a maximum
trap size because they believe that larger traps do not necessarily catch
more fish, rather the extra room they provide allows trapped fish to live
longer (e.g., yellowtail snapper). Also, the size of boats typically used in
the fishery (20-32 ft.) cannot carry large traps in quantity to fishing sites.
Net Result/Effect
• This initial allocation/effort reduction strategy would
result in 932 registered fish traps, representing:
o A 101.5% increase in fish traps relative to the sum of the
maximum number of fish traps recorded by each
individual on DPNR commercial catch records during the
2010-11 fishing year (463).
o
A 47% increase in fish traps relative to the maximum
number of traps fished annually, on average, over the
last five years (635).
o
A 3% increase in fish traps relative to the total number
of traps currently reported in the fishery through the
STX fisher survey (908).
o
A 76.5% decrease in fish traps relative to the total
number of traps estimated in the fishery prior to
Hurricane Hugo (4,000).
Current Proposed
• No transferability provisions yet proposed
• Current options being considered include:
o
Trap endorsements and tags would be transferable
only as a package and only to USVI licensed
commercial fishers (tags could not be transferred
independent of an endorsement)
o
USVI commercial fishing licenses, endorsements and
tags would be freely transferable without restriction
(would likely require legislative action)
 Proposed
•
Only tagged traps could be legally fished
•
Any fisher who loses traps (documented by
the NOAA lost trap study at 10%/year) would
have to certify to DPNR enforcement that the
traps were lost before getting replacement
tags
 Proposed
•
The STX Steering Committee would evolve
into a permanent oversight committee to
deal with appeals and other trap related
issues (this committee could potentially be a
subcommittee of the STX Fishery Advisory
Committee)