Common use of Operating Area Clause in Contracts

Operating Area. Participating vessels will fish in the Gulf of Maine, ▇▇▇▇▇▇’s Bank, and Southern New England using fishing gear capable of catching allocated stocks under the Plan. 1. Exemption request: DSM when ASM is present The Northeast Coastal Communities Sector requests an exemption from all dockside monitoring requirements for trips on which an at-sea monitor is present. Rationale: There is no need for redundant monitoring of the same trip by both an at-sea and a dockside monitor because the at-sea monitor will already achieve the catch verification objective of the dockside monitor for that trip. The expense of additional dockside monitoring is unnecessary and overly burdensome for the Sector members. 2. Exemption request: DSM for jig fishery The Northeast Coastal Communities Sector requests an exemption from all dockside monitoring requirements for all trips conducted by jig fishermen. Rationale: Jig (hook and line) fishermen can target cod with virtually no bycatch of other stocks. This has been demonstrated by this gear type during the 2010 fishing year and in past years. Furthermore, jig fishing yields far fewer fish caught than other gear types, and thus monitoring of this gear type is cost ineffective in terms of dollars spent per monitored pound of fish. 3. Exemption request: DSM for hook gear dogfish directed trips The Northeast Coastal Communities Sector requests an exemption from all dockside monitoring requirements for all trips using demersal longline, handgear, and jig on targeted dogfish trips. Rationale: Dogfishing trips yield extremely low groundfish bycatch with a hook gear type. The cost of dockside monitoring per pound of groundfish monitored in the directed dogfish fishery using hook gear is too low to justify the burden that this monitoring places on the fishery. 4. Exemption request: ASM for hook gear dogfish directed trips The Northeast Coastal Communities Sector requests an exemption from all at-sea requirements for all trips using demersal longline, handgear, and jig on targeted dogfish trips. Rationale: Dogfishing trips yield extremely low groundfish bycatch with a hook gear type. The cost of at- sea monitoring per pound of groundfish monitored in the directed dogfish fishery using hook gear is too low to justify the burden that this monitoring places on the fishery. 5. Exemption request: DSM for hook trips up to a 10,000 lb catch threshold The Northeast Coastal Communities Sector requests an exemption from dockside monitoring until at least 10,000 lbs of fish have been caught by vessels deploying hook gear in the NCC Sector. Once this threshold has been triggered, DSM coverage would commence. Rationale: During the 2010 fishing year, our Sector contracted with service providers to monitor the offload of trips that yielded zero pounds of groundfish due to the sparse fishing grounds in this region. The cost of acquiring this observer coverage was several hundred dollars due to the remote nature of our ports in eastern Maine. Dockside monitoring is both cost prohibitive and unnecessary for trips that yield virtually no groundfish.