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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 7
March 2010
ASMFC sets 2010-2012 Atlantic herring specs
ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Herring Section took steps during its Feb. 1 meeting here to stay in synch with new terminology and fishing quotas recently adopted by the New England Fishery Management Council.
The section adopted an optimum yield of 91,200 metric tons (mt), equivalent to the New England council’s acceptable biological catch (ABC) level of 106,000 mt – minus 14,800 mt that the council deducted for “management uncertainty” (see CFN December 2009 for details on the council’s specs).
Like the council, ASMFC distributed the 91,200 mt as follows:
Area 1A – 26,546 mt, down from 45,000 mt last year;
Area 1B – 4,362 mt, down from 10,000 mt;
Area 2 – 22,146 mt, down from 30,000 mt; and
Area 3 – 38,146 mt, down from 60,000 mt.
ASMFC agreed with the council that if the New Brunswick weir fishery harvests less than 9,000 mt by Oct. 15 of a fishing year, then 3,000 mt will be added to the Area 1A total allowable catch (TAC) for November and December.
The herring section also allocated 4,000 mt for border transfers with Canada and agreed that the Area 1A set-aside for fixed gear fishermen west of Cutler, ME would be 295 mt for each of the next three fishing years.
Given the large TAC reductions, ASMFC, like the New England council, agreed to forego research set-aside allocations.
Dave Ellenton of Cape Seafoods Inc. and Western Sea Fishing Co. in Gloucester viewed that outcome, which industry reluctantly supported, as unfortunate.
“It’s extremely disappointing to the industry that the specifications are so low we can’t afford to do any more research in Area 1A, and that’s where it’s badly needed,” he said.
Two seasons
In an effort to stretch out the limited Area 1A TAC, the section voted to split the tonnage into two seasons: 72.8% will be available from June through September; and 27.2% will be available from October through December.
Furthermore, the section agreed to close the 1A fishery once 95% of a seasonal period’s quota is harvested. Any underages from the June-September period will be rolled into the October-December period.
These “tools” to divvy up the Area 1A quota into smaller chunks were adopted last year by ASMFC as a way to foster a steadier supply of herring throughout the season. The intent was to have quota available in the fall when lobstermen badly need herring for bait.
2009 at a glance
ASMFC herring technical committee Chairman Matt Cieri of Maine provided the section with an overview of the 2009 fishery, which was noteworthy in a number of ways.
For one, the US fleet harvested the largest amount of fish from Area 3 on Georges Bank since the days of foreign fishing there, said Cieri.
Preliminary data collected through the interactive voice reporting (IVR) system indicates that fishermen landed 29,446 mt from Area 3 last year – 17,646 mt more than in 2008.
Also, Cieri noted that the 30,000 mt Area 2 TAC was utilized extremely quickly last year. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) shut down the area in mid-April after projecting that 95% of the allocation had been harvested. NMFS did reopen the area on Dec. 10 after determining through more complete reports that 1,450 mt was still available for harvest, but the rapid utilization of the Area 2 quota in general marked a change from past practices.
The only area to see a decline in catch was 1B, said Cieri. According to IVR data, Area 1B landings in 2009 totaled only 1,796 mt, down from 2008’s harvest of 8,104 mt.
Furthermore, New Brunswick weir landings were down significantly, totaling only 2,534 mt in 2009. Area 1A fishermen will be closely monitoring these weir landings in 2010 since a shortfall in that fishery will result in the additional 3,000 mt for 1A.
New terms
In another action, the herring section voted to send draft Addendum II to Amendment 2 of the interstate herring plan out for public comment.
The addendum proposes to establish new terminology and definitions to match those being adopted by the New England council through Amendment 4 to the federal herring plan (see related story page 10A for Amendment 4 details).
The addendum also proposes to delete obsolete terms in the specification setting process.
ASMFC herring plan coordinator Chris Vonderweidt emphasized that the addendum was mostly procedural in nature.
“This will not change how herring are managed,” he said. “At the end of the day, there’s going to be a hard quota allocated by area.”
Janice M. Plante
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