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 Proposed 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 Result/Effect Based on DPNR commercial catch record data, 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 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)