Descriptions of Selected Fishery Landings and Estimates of Vessel Revenue from Areas: A Planning-level Assessment
Prepared by:
National Marine Fisheries Service
June 24, 2025
OCS-A-0537
Data sources:
Commercial Fisheries landings data, Vessel Trip Reports, and
Surfclam/OceanQuahog Logbooks
In order to meet requirements of maintaining data confidentiality, these strata are presented individually. In addition, for records that did not meet the rule of three (>=3 unique dealers and >= 3 unique permits), values were summarized as ‘ALL OTHERS’.
Some caveats/notes:
- The lease area and any export cable corridor(s) for approved projects, as applicable, used for this report reflect areas posted on the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) website as of November 21, 2024.
- Values are reported in real 2024 dollars as calculated using the GDP Implicit Price Deflator.
- Pounds are reported in landed (dressed) pounds.
- Data summarized here is based on vessels that are required to provide federal VTRs for GARFO managed species (check here for more information).
- Federal lobster vessels with only lobster permits do not have a VTR requirement. Many vessels issued an Atlantic Highly Migratory Species or Southeast Regional Office permit also do not have a Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) VTR requirement. Trips with no GARFO VTR are not reflected in this summary and impacts to these fisheries may be underrepresented.
- The ASMFC FMP includes the following species: American Lobster, Cobia, Atlantic Croaker, Black Drum, Red Drum, Menhaden, NK Sea Bass, NK Seatrout, Spot, Striped Bass, Tautog, Jonah Crab, and Pandalid Shrimp.
- The SERO FMP includes the following species: Amber Jack, Brown Shrimp, Dolphinfish, Greater Amberjack, Grouper, Grunts, Hogfish, King Mackerel, Long Tail Grouper, NK Porgy, Penaeid Shrimp, Red Grouper, Red Hind, Red Porgy, Red Snapper, Rock Hind, Sand Tilefish, Scamp Grouper, Snapper, Snowy Grouper, Spadefish, Spanish Mackerel, Speckled Hind, Spiny American Lobster, Triggerfish, Vermillion Snapper, Wahoo, Wreckfish, Yellowedge Grouper.
- There exist other fisheries in State waters that may not be reflected in data from federal sources (e.g. whelk, bluefish, and menhaden). It is recommended to query state agencies for additional data within state waters.
- All summaries presented here are built from percentages of a trip that overlapped spatially with the WEAs. These percentages were applied to landings and values for that trip and summed. This differs from simply using the self-reported VTR/clam logbook locations as those place all value from that trip at a single point. Use of the VTR raster model is more representative as smoothing reported locations reduces the effect of location inaccuracy.
- The information reported for 2020 should be interpreted with caution due to the generalized impacts the COVID-19 pandemic had across many fisheries in the Greater Atlantic Region resulting in reduced landings and lower prices; hence lower revenues as well as unusually low numbers of vessels that fished during the year.
- The number of small businesses changes over time both because of changes in affiliated ownership and fluctuations in revenue. For this reason, we use and report only the most recent three years’ revenue in the Small Business Analysis section of this report, consistent with historical guidance provided by the Small Business Administration.
- Recent changes to the reporting of Surfclam and Ocean Quahog fisheries data in 2023 have likely affected the accuracy of estimated fishing footprints for effort, landings, and revenue within wind energy areas. Users should interpret these data with caution.
- Confidential data is listed as “Suppressed” or “All Others.”
- All numbers have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
References
DePiper GS
(2014) Statistically assessing the precision of self-reported VTR
fishing locations.
Benjamin
S, Lee MY, DePiper G. 2018. Visualizing fishing data as rasters. NEFSC
Ref Doc 18-12; 24 p.
Most Impacted FMPs
We define “most impacted” as the FMPs deriving the most revenue from
the area over the seventeen year analysis period of 2008 to 2024,
indicating the highest potential for impact to industry from a reduction
in fishing area. The top 5 FMPs by revenue in OCS-A-0537 were Sea
Scallop, Surfclam, Ocean Quahog, Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass,
Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish and Atlantic Herring. Revenue values
have been deflated to 2024 dollars. Specific figures on these FMPs
within the area follow. See Table 5.1 for area totals for all FMPs and
species.
Figure 1.1 Landings from the Most Impacted FMPs within
OCS-A-0537
| FMP | Seventeen Year Landings |
|---|---|
| Surfclam, Ocean Quahog | 5,083,000 |
| Sea Scallop | 3,752,000 |
| Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish | 3,165,000 |
| Atlantic Herring | 2,520,000 |
| Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass | 1,448,000 |
| Total | 15,968,000 |
Figure 1.2 Revenue from the Most Impacted FMPs within OCS-A-0537
| FMP | Seventeen Year Revenue |
|---|---|
| Sea Scallop | $47,225,000 |
| Surfclam, Ocean Quahog | $4,179,000 |
| Summer Flounder, Scup, Black Sea Bass | $2,710,000 |
| Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish | $1,728,000 |
| Atlantic Herring | $359,000 |
| Total | $56,201,000 |
Other Impacted FMPs
We analyzed other impacted FMPs separately in order to better
visualize the estimated landings and revenues. The other impacted FMPs
are: ASMFC FMP, Atlantic Deep-Sea Red Crab, Bluefish, Highly Migratory
Species, Monkfish, Northeast Multispecies, SERO FMP, Skates, Small-Mesh
Multispecies, Spiny Dogfish, Tilefish and “No Federal FMP.” The category
“No Federal FMP” contains a variety of species that are not federally
regulated, such as: lobster, Jonah crab, smooth and chain dogfish,
whelk, and menhaden, (there are close to 89 species without federal FMPs
caught in the OCS-A-0537 area). Revenue values have been deflated to
2024 dollars. See Table 5.1 for area totals for all FMPs and
species.
Figure 2.1 Landings from the Other Impacted FMPs
within OCS-A-0537
| FMP | Seventeen Year Landings |
|---|---|
| Monkfish | 120,000 |
| No Federal FMP | 110,000 |
| ASMFC FMP | 108,000 |
| Small-Mesh Multispecies | 102,000 |
| Skates | 63,000 |
| Spiny Dogfish | 21,000 |
| Bluefish | 18,000 |
| Tilefish | 17,000 |
| Highly Migratory Species | 11,000 |
| SERO FMP | 4,000 |
| Northeast Multispecies | 1,000 |
| Atlantic Deep-Sea Red Crab | <500 |
| Total | 574,000 |
Figure 2.2 Revenue from the Other Impacted FMPs within OCS-A-0537
| FMP | Seventeen Year Revenue |
|---|---|
| Monkfish | $296,000 |
| ASMFC FMP | $254,000 |
| Small-Mesh Multispecies | $93,000 |
| Tilefish | $69,000 |
| No Federal FMP | $51,000 |
| Skates | $26,000 |
| Bluefish | $18,000 |
| Highly Migratory Species | $12,000 |
| SERO FMP | $4,000 |
| Spiny Dogfish | $4,000 |
| Northeast Multispecies | $2,000 |
| Atlantic Deep-Sea Red Crab | $1,000 |
| Total | $828,000 |
Most Impacted Species
We analyzed the top ten species due to their economic importance in the area and to isolate them from combined FMPs. The top ten species by revenue are: Scallop,Sea, All Others, Flounder,Summer, Squid (Loligo), Sea Bass,Black, Scup, Mackerel,Atlantic, Quahog,Ocean, Herring,Atlantic and Monkfish. The category “All Others” refers to species with less than three permits or dealers impacted to protect data confidentiality. Revenue values have been deflated to 2024 dollars. See Table 5.1 for area totals for all FMPs and species.
Figure 3.1 Landings from the Most Impacted Species within
OCS-A-0537
| Species | Seventeen Year Landings |
|---|---|
| All Others | 11,695,000 |
| Scallop,Sea | 3,752,000 |
| Herring,Atlantic | 2,520,000 |
| Mackerel,Atlantic | 2,254,000 |
| Squid (Loligo) | 806,000 |
| Scup | 788,000 |
| Quahog,Ocean | 736,000 |
| Flounder,Summer | 429,000 |
| Sea Bass,Black | 231,000 |
| Monkfish | 120,000 |
| Total | 23,329,000 |
Figure 3.2 Revenue from the Most Impacted Species within OCS-A-0537