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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 7
March 2008
2007 herring catch: US down, New Brunswick up
ALEXANDRIA, VA – US fishermen landed significantly less Atlantic herring in 2007 than the previous year, while the New Brunswick weir fishery in Canada chalked up a huge increase.
At the Feb. 4 meeting of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Herring Section, Matt Cieri of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, who chairs the section’s herring technical committee, presented a preview of preliminary 2007 landings.
“Overall, the US fishery declined about 21,000 metric tons (mt),” he said.
Cieri cautioned that landings data were far from finalized, except possibly for Area 1A in the inshore Gulf of Maine.
“We have a pretty good idea of what was landed in 1A,” he said.
Based on the figures available so far, it appears that US landings were down in every management area except Area 3 on Georges Bank, which was showing a 5,312 mt landings increase over 2006.
Landings from Areas 1B and 2 were showing declines of 6,149 mt and 7,065 mt respectively.
The Area 1A catch dropped by 13,109 mt – no real surprise given the total allowable catch (TAC) for the area was reduced by 10,000 mt. The TAC in 2006 was 60,000 mt. In 2007 it was 50,000 mt.
New Brunswick
Instead, what turned out to be the real shocker was the astounding increase in landings from the New Brunswick weir fishery, which jumped from 11,641 mt in 2006 to 31,000 mt in 2007.
“All of the decrease in the US catch has been offset by the New Brunswick weir fishery,” said Cieri.
During the US’s periodic specification setting process, ASMFC and the New England Fishery Management Council factor in an assumed 20,000 mt catch from the New Brunswick fishery because many of the fish in that catch, namely the juveniles, are considered to come from the Gulf of Maine stock.
But the 31,000 mt catch in 2007 marked an actual 19,359 mt landings increase over 2006 and an 11,000 mt increase even over the 20,000 mt that ASMFC and the council factored into the TAC equation as the “assumed” catch.
Section members wanted to know how much of the New Brunswick catch was dominated by the supposed Gulf of Maine juveniles.
Cieri said he couldn’t answer that question because the Canadians were not presently aging herring from the New Brunswick weir fishery.
However, he said, it might be possible to get the size composition of the catch, which would give the technical committee an indication of age.
Giving fish away
Industry members expressed deep frustration over the situation and were convinced that much of the extra harvest in New Brunswick was a direct result of US fishermen not being allowed to catch those same fish on the US side of the border.
“We have not achieved anything in a biological sense by lowering the TAC. It just shifted to the Canadians,” said Mary Beth Tooley of the Small Pelagic Group.
Peter Moore of the American Pelagic Association was equally disturbed about the New Brunswick increase.
“The Canadians are not aging fish. They’re catching more juveniles. I’m very concerned that we’re going to hand this whole fishery over to the Canadians when they’re mismanaging themselves,” he said.
ASMFC section members asked whether any of the New Brunswick catch ended up in US markets, including the lobster bait market.
Dave Ellenton of Cape Seafoods Inc. confirmed that that was indeed the case.
“A lot of that fish did come south to fill the shortfall that the lower quota created in our fishery in Area 1A,” he said.
Regulatory changes
Industry members said numerous factors contributed to the jump in Canadian catch.
In addition to the lower TAC in Area 1A, for the first time ever, the area was under a midwater trawl prohibition from June through September. Only purse seiners and fixed gear fishermen were allowed to fish during those peak summer months.
A number of midwater trawlers converted to seiners or dual-capability vessels, meaning they could switch between midwater trawling and seining.
These vessel owners did so in order to continue working in Area 1A during the height of the fishery, but having to use a new gear type after the conversions took a toll.
“Switching to purse seines was a learning curve,” said Tooley, who represents several vessels that made the change. “The Canadians picked up on that very quickly.”
And, she said, they capitalized on it.
“We were very successful in giving our market to the Canadians in 2007,” said Tooley.
Vessel conversions
There was no doubt that the four-month summertime ban on midwater trawling greatly changed fishing activity in Area 1A.
According to Cieri, preliminary data indicated that purse seine landings in 2006 accounted for 30% of the 1A catch. In 2007, the figure jumped to 65%.
As for single and pair midwater trawls, vessels using this gear type harvested 69% of the Area 1A catch in 2006 but only 32% in 2007.
Early summary information also was showing that:
21 midwater trawlers fished in Area 1A in 2006 while only nine did in 2007;
Five purse-seine-only vessels fished there in 2006 compared to seven in 2007; and
One dual seiner/midwater trawler fished in 1A in 2006 while five did in 2007.
In short, six seine-only or dual seine/trawl vessels fished in Area 1A in 2006 while 12 did in 2007, representing a doubling of seine activity.
What next?
In the end, herring section members agreed to send a letter to NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator Pat Kurkul expressing concern about the large increase in New Brunswick weir landings and the fact that the catch in that fishery wasn’t capped by any sort of quota or TAC.
The section also intended to question the impact of the high New Brunswick catch on the US specification-setting process.
According to Cieri, scientists involved in the next US/Canada herring stock assessment, conducted by the Transboundary Resource Assessment Committee or TRAC, also would further discuss the New Brunswick weir fishery to better determine how these fish fit into the Gulf of Maine stock picture.
The TRAC is scheduled to release its next assessment in 2009.
Janice M. Plante
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