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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 9
May 2010
Area 1A herring quota: 41% cutback looms
GLOUCESTER, MA – While it came as no surprise, the official proposed rule outlining 2010-2012 Atlantic herring quotas was still tough to read.
Most people already knew what it would say – that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), acting on the recommendation of the New England Fishery Management Council, intends to implement a 41% reduction in the total allowable catch (TAC) for Area 1A.
Yet, it was sobering to see this hard, cold fact in print. The formal Federal Register notice was published on April 20 and widely distributed through e-mail among the principal players in the fishery.
NMFS said the public comment period would run through May 20, but it was difficult to imagine that the numbers would change after everything industry, scientists, and managers went through over the past year to reach this point. The discussions that led to the proposed specifications took a toll on everyone (see CFN October 2009 and December 2009 for details).
Barring an unforeseen adjustment to the current proposed rule or a future rule change, here is the gist of what NMFS is proposing as hard TACs for the next three fishing years.
Specs by metric tons
The fishery’s 2010-2012 allowable biological catch, which will be called “acceptable biological catch” (ABC) as soon as Amendment 4 to the federal herring plan is implemented, is proposed to be 106,000 metric tons (mt). This figure is the “average US and Canadian catch from 2006 through 2008.”
Optimum yield (OY) for the fishery is ABC minus 14,800 mt to account for potential catches in the New Brunswick weir fishery. The 14,800 mt is the average 1999-2008 weir catch minus the highest and lowest years.
The weir deduction puts OY for the US fishery at 91,200 mt, which NMFS, following the New England council’s lead, proposes to divide among the management areas as follows:
• Area 1A – 26,546 mt, down from 45,000 mt in 2009;
• 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.
NMFS intends to closes the fishery when 95% of the TAC in any given area is projected to be harvested. This means the “effective optimum yield” for the total fishery is 86,640 mt, which is 95% of the 91,200 mt.
Area 1A strategy
The proposed rule contains one opportunity to boost the Area 1A quota by 3,000 mt. If landings in the New Brunswick weir fishery total less than 9,000 mt by Oct. 15, then NMFS will add 3,000 mt to the Area 1A TAC in November.
The additional allocation is a distinct possibility. New Brunswick weir landings in 2009 were down significantly, totaling on the order of 2,500 mt.
Also, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Herring Section, which plays a major role in how the fish in Area 1A are caught and landed, voted last November to prohibit all landings of herring from Area 1A until June 1 – with the exception of the 2,000-pound incidental catch limit that’s allowed when the fishery is closed.
The section took this action in anticipation of the significant quota cut for Area 1A, and industry supported the move, wanting to reserve the available fish for the summer/fall fishery.
ASMFC furthermore voted in February to split the 26,546-mt quota into two seasonal allocations, making 72.8% available from June 1 through Sept. 30 and then releasing the remaining 27.2% on Oct. 1 for the fall fishery, which will run through Dec. 31 or until the TAC runs out.
At press time, ASMFC also announced that the herring section would be holding its first “days out” meeting on May 14 at the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth, NH beginning at 10 am.
There, the section, along with industry, will work to further spread out the limited Area 1A quota by allowing fish to be landed only on certain days of the week.
For more information on this meeting, call ASMFC interstate herring plan coordinator Chris Vonderweidt at (202) 289-6400.
Impacts inevitable
Ironically, the proposed 2010-2012 optimum yield figure of 91,200 mt, which was adopted by ASMFC and now appears inevitable on the federal level, is actually greater than the sum total of 2008 landings.
The problem is that in past years, a significant chunk of total landings have come from Area 1A, and the 2010 TAC for Area 1A will now be 41% lower than last year.
Although NMFS did state in the April 20 Federal Register notice that the new quotas may actually allow the fleet to land the same total amount of herring as in recent years, the agency fully recognized the implications behind such a steep reduction in the inshore Gulf of Maine allocation.
“Area 1A has historically been the most important area to the fishery and the TAC has been fully utilized for the past four fishing years,” NMFS said.
And, while the proposed 2010 specifications for Areas 2 and 3 are “higher than historical landings in those areas” and “could provide additional revenue for the herring fishery if the Area 1A TAC is fully harvested,” NMFS plainly stated that “conditions associated with harvesting herring from Areas 2 and 3 may not be ideal.”
To this end, NMFS said, “If the Area 1A TAC is attained during the summer, fish may only be available in Areas 1B and 3 since Area 2 is primarily a winter fishing ground.”
The Area 2 fishery did chug along this winter. According to NMFS’s Atlantic Herring Weekly Landings Report, 11,970 mt or 43% of the Area 2 quota had been landed by April 10.
As for the Area 3 fishery on Georges Bank, NMFS was honest about its prospects, too.
“Area 3 is a large offshore area, and it is never certain that fish will aggregate in such a way that they are available to fishing operations,” the agency said. “Smaller vessels may not be able to fish safely offshore.”
Even for larger vessels that can safely fish in Area 3, NMFS noted that fuel costs, trip expenses, trip lengths, and search time all surely would increase.
NMFS said it was difficult to predict the degree to which costs would increase but stated, “Observer data show that each additional day at sea for midwater trawl vessels increases trip costs an average of $2,800.”
Inshore component
In short, there was no way to hide the fact that the inshore quota reductions would be devastating to the industry, which is already reeling from previous cuts. Back in 2006, the Area 1A TAC was 60,000 mt, so the most recent 45,000-mt quota in and of itself was a big blow.
However, NMFS said this latest action and additional cuts should benefit the herring resource.
“By reducing fishing mortality in Areas 1A, 1B, and 2, the proposed action reduces the risk of overfishing the inshore stock component. In the long-term, maintaining the inshore stock component will provide for sustained participation in the herring fishery.”
According to the 2006 stock assessment conducted by the US/Canada Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee, 18% of the total Atlantic herring stock complex is made up of the inshore stock component while 82% is made up of the offshore component.
“Because the inshore component has substantially less biomass than the offshore stock component, it is likely more vulnerable to overfishing,” said NMFS. “These same management areas are of particular economic importance to the industry because of herring availability and proximity of the fishing grounds to shore.”
Herring boats
While it was hard to pinpoint exactly how many people would be impacted by the pending quota cuts, here is a list of the potential number of involved vessels based on NMFS’s 2009 permit data:
• Category A – limited-access in all areas, 41 boats;
• Category B – limited-access in Areas 2 and 3 only, four boats;
• Category C – limited-access incidental catch, which allows vessels to possess up to 55,000 pounds or 25 mt of herring with a limit of one landing per calendar day, 54 boats; and
• Category D – open-access, which allows vessels to possess up to 6,600 pounds or 3 mt with a limit of one landing per calendar day, 2,272 boats.
Beyond the impacts on herring boats and shoreside processors and dealers, the lobster industry is bracing for potentially serious bait shortages due to the herring quota reductions.
How to comment
Anyone who would like to comment on the proposed 2010-2012 specifications by the May 20 deadline can do so one of three ways:
• Mail comments to NMFS, Northeast Regional Office, 55 Great Republic Drive, Gloucester, MA 01930 in an enveloped marked with the words “Comments on 2010-2012 Herring Specifications;”
• Fax comments to the attention of Carrie Nordeen at (978) 281-9135; or
• Electronically submit comments via the federal e-Rulemaking portal at <www.regulations.gov>. Select “proposed rules” under “document type” and check “open for comment/submission.” Under key words type “Atlantic Herring 2010-2012 Specifications.” Hit “search.”
For more information, call Carrie Nordeen at (978) 281-9272.
Amendment 5
Meanwhile, the New England council’s herring committee was ramping up its work on Amendment 5 to the federal herring plan.
The committee met March 30-31 to talk about monitoring measures for the fishery. It discussed everything from at-sea and dockside monitoring alternatives to bycatch retention possibilities to potential options for funding additional monitoring.
The committee will meet again on May 17 in Portsmouth, NH at the Sheraton Harborside Hotel beginning at 9:30 am. Here, the committee will focus primarily on river herring bycatch reduction measures, which also will be included in Amendment 5.
For more information on this meeting, call herring plan coordinator Lori Steele at the New England council office at (978) 465-0492, ext. 25.
Janice M. Plante
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