Problems With The Trawls

In September 2002, a fisherman pointed noticed that the cables that connect the otter doors to the trawl net used aboard the survey vessel F/V Albatross were of unequal length. Marks on the cable that indicated 50-meter intervals were found to be inaccurate. This difference in length created an offset in the position of the doors relative to each other and the vessel during trawling. NMFS issued a statement that says the offset trawl doors did not make a significant difference in the current catch rates of the net as compared to pre-2000 catch rates. But fishers, both recreational and commercial, were skeptical. On September 11, 2002 NMFS published a press release concerning the uneven cables. NMFS claimed "a preliminary review of existing data sets does not reveal an obvious effect attributable to the change in cable. However, it will take time to reliably document how the gear performed and how that might have influenced catch."[32]

After correcting the length of the cables the nets were used for the Fall 2002 survey. At a trawl performance workshop on October 3, 2002 NMFS revealed that "the trawl warp offset has had an effect on the survey trawl performance; however, at this time the workshop cannot determine the magnitude or scale of that effect."[33] NMFS stated that there was a need to revise the trawl methods with the participation of fishers and stakeholders and this was to be done "as early as possible."

A Groundfish Assessment Review Meeting (GARM) was held on October 8-11, 2002 and produced a report entitled "Assessment of 20 Northeast Groundfish Stocks through 2001." In this document NMFS presented the data from the offset warp surveys and data from Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (MDMF) trawl surveys that were conducted over the same area as the NMFS surveys. NMFS concluded that "The overall trends in these indices and the general comportment of the NMFS and Mass-DMFsurveys do not support the hypothesis of highly reduced catch efficiency in the NMFS surveys during the period of warp offsets or in the recent past (as compared with earlier periods of the time series)."[34]

On October 25, 2002 NMFS released a press release stating that the data collected during the 2000 and 2001 faulty trawl surveys was "not detectably different from similar data collected during other years, when subjected to exhaustive statistical analyses."[35] Scientists conducted 10 different statistical analyses to search for evidence of any influence on survey data that could be attributed to the faulty warps. They also conducted analyses to determine how much change in assessment advice would occur if survey catches for 2000 and 2001 were larger. These tests resulted in "virtually no change in management advice for groundfish."[36]

An experiment was undertaken from October 28 to November 6 2002, which was designed to compare catch rates of the R/V Albatross IV under two different gear configurations. During this experiment the F/V Sea Breeze fished alongside of the F/V Albatross IV, both with newly-constructed nets, and attempted to match the tows made by the original research vessel.

Another trawl performance workshop occurred on January 13-14, 2003 to present the data obtained during the fall experimental tows. Here catch data from the R/V Albatross IV and F/V Sea Breeze were examined to determine the frequency of tows where one vessel had a positive catch of a species while the other recorded a null tow for the same species. Overall, the results of the analysis "indicated that the proportion of tows where one vessel or gear configuration recorded a positive catch while the other did not was relatively low, less than 7.5% for any combination."[37] Simply, there did not appear to be a significant difference in landings between the newly constructed gears.