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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 10
June 2010
Herring landing days set for June; more coming
PORTSMOUTH, NH – Fishermen will be able to land Atlantic herring from Area 1A on 10 different days between June 1 and July 5.
The allowable landing days are June 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, and 29 and July 5. All other days in-between are designated as “days out” of the fishery.
The states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, working as a subset of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Herring Section, reached this compromise on May 14 during the first of what now promises to be a string of “days out” meetings to better control the flow of herring landings from the inshore Gulf of Maine.
The group will meet again on July 7 to determine what will happen next.
With extremely severe cutbacks in recent years to the Area 1A total allowable catch (TAC), the section’s days-out meetings have become increasingly difficult, and the May 14 meeting, which was attended by roughly 50 people, was especially tense for a number of reasons.
First, inventories of fresh bait were low – practically nonexistent in some ports – so lobstermen were eager for a new supply of high quality herring. Bait suppliers, in turn, were desperate to get boats out on the water to bring in fish to satisfy customers.
In addition, small-mesh bottom trawl (SMBT) fishermen and officials from New Hampshire, still raw from ASMFC’s defeat of their nine-month-long effort to somehow accommodate SMBT boats in the Area 1A fishery, fiercely fought for ways to gain additional fishing time in July and August rather than in June.
However, Jennie Bichrest of Purse Line Bait argued strongly for allowing at least a modest number of landing days in June.
“We need bait now,” she said. “There are a lot of empty coolers because there was not a lot of fish landed over the winter. In August and September, there is alternative bait available.”
On the other hand, Erik Anderson, president of the New Hampshire Commercial Fishermen’s Association, urged section members to preserve as many landing days as possible for later in the season when small-mesh bottom trawl vessels are allowed to fish in the Gulf of Maine.
“These small boats are important providers of bait to the lobster industry,” he said. “We want to get the greatest distance out of the season and provide bait as long as possible, but here’s an opportunity to provide for a fuller array of participants in the fishery.”
Matt Cieri of the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), who serves as chair of ASMFC’s Atlantic Herring Technical Committee, opened the meeting with a presentation.
Cieri first explained that, although the Area 1A TAC for 2010 is 26,546 metric tons (mt), the amount of fish available to the overall fleet drops down to 24,938 mt. The lower figure reflects deductions made to account for a 5% bycatch allowance, which is why the area is closed once 95% of the quota is harvested, and Downeast Maine’s fixed gear fishery, which has a 295-mt set aside.
Furthermore, Cieri said that, under ASMFC rules, the Area 1A TAC is now allocated seasonally. So, given the 2010 figures, it breaks down as follows:
June through September – 72.8%, equivalent to 18,155 mt; and
October through December – 27.2%, equivalent to 6,783 mt.
Landing options
The rest of the meeting focused on how best to spread out the available 18,155 mt over the summertime season.
Cieri presented 10 different computer-generated “scenarios” that each projected how long the fishery would last under different starting dates with different numbers of allowable landing days. Some used June 1 as the start date, others used July 1, and one used July 15.
While a few of the options were batted around, the crowd quickly narrowed the list down to two real possibilities, which were referred to as “Scenario 2” and “Scenario 7” from then on.
Under Scenario 2, the Area 1A fishery would open on June 1 with two allowable landing days per week. According to Cieri, the computer model projected that the 18,155 mt would last through the month of September and even result in a 162-mt rollover into the October-December period.
Under Scenario 7, the fishery would open on June 1 with one landing day per week, followed by two landing days per week as of July 1 and then three landing days per week as of July 15. In this case, said Cieri, the model projected that Area 1A would close sometime during the week of Aug. 21.
Spread it out
Cieri had widely circulated a copy of the computer-generated scenarios by e-mail to herring industry members prior to the meeting, so many in the room had studied the options.
Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, said her membership expressed “overwhelming support” for Scenario 2 with its two landing days per week.
“Overall, we’re looking for a steady and predictable bait supply,” she said. “People are fishing right now, and we need fresh bait.”
Although Scenario 7 also included a June 1 start to the fishery, the MLA was concerned about any option containing three landing days, she said.
“With three days, the fish tend to come in pretty fast,” McCarron said. “The last thing we want is for you guys to come back and shut it down. Two days seems to slow the fishery down, and it minimizes the chance of a shutdown. For us, it’s more important to be steady.”
Maine fisherman Glenn Robbins was worried about the Aug. 21 projected closure of Area 1A under Scenario 7.
“You’re better off with two days because it takes you further into the season,” he said. “There are a lot of lobsters being landed in September.”
Maine lobster dealer Dana Rice agreed. He urged the section to adopt Scenario 2, monitor landings “very closely,” and then “make adjustments” as needed.
“It just seems the best way to start out at this point,” he said. “With Scenario 7, everybody starts up behind the eight ball, and then everyone is going to have to hoard up more bait at the beginning.”
Why June?
Section member Doug Grout of New Hampshire Fish & Game (NHF&G), however, thought it might be best to cut back on landing days in June and save them for later in the season when lobster fishing activity was higher.
“With a 41% reduction in the quota, wouldn’t it be better to have heavier landings in July, August, and September?” he asked. “Otherwise, you’ll be putting more herring in the market when lobstermen don’t need it as much.”
Mary Beth Tooley of the O’Hara Corp. in Rockland, ME said the core issue was that very few people had any fresh bait on hand at all right now.
Echoing Bichrest’s comment, Tooley said, “We have very little fish in the cooler. We need to do some fishing now.”
Furthermore, given the extremely low quota for Area 1A, Tooley deemed any scenario that allowed three landing days in July to be “way too risky.”
With two landing days per week and careful monitoring, she said, people would be able to gain a sense of the fishery as the season progressed and would know whether alternative bait sources such as pogies or even herring from Georges Bank would become available.
Yet Grout also expressed concern for small-mesh bottom trawlers, who can’t begin fishing in Area 1A until mid-July because of federal groundfish restrictions.
“We as an agency (at NHF&G) tried to develop an addendum to deal with small-mesh bottom trawlers to ensure that this fishery was not disadvantaged and so we wouldn’t have to use this days-out process to accommodate them,” he said.
But since the addendum failed, Grout said, “I think offering up a compromise here is something all of us could live with, and I believe that’s what Scenario 7 does.”
Lobsters drive economy
Pat Anderson of Rye Harbor, NH, who has two day-boats, acknowledged everyone’s concerns, including those with an immediate need for bait.
“A reasonable and fair choice seems to be Scenario 7,” she said. “It allows some landing days in June and some in July, and it helps the small-boat fleet as well.”
But Maine section member Terry Stockwell of the DMR said he couldn’t support an alternative that bumped the fishery up to three landing days in mid-July when only 18,155 mt was available for the summer season.
“This resource is used by multiple fisheries in multiple states, but lobsters drive the coastal economies,” he said. “The bait supply needs to carry right through the entire season. Three days is not really a viable alternative. We’re looking for a longer-term season.”
Stockwell also noted that SMBT boats could fish into September, which would be possible under Scenario 2.
First cut adjusted
With section members at a stalemate, section Chair and state Rep. Dennis Abbott of New Hampshire called for a break.
After caucusing, the section came back with a delicately hammered-out agreement: The states would allow the Area 1A fishery to start on June 7 with two landing days per week through July 6, and then the section would meet again on July 7 with “a fresh slate.”
Grout said, “I still feel very strongly that we need to limit the landing days in June because we have a very small quota, but with this compromise, maybe we could go to a three-day week later on for the small-mesh bottom trawlers.”
Bait suppliers were visibly troubled by the June 7 start date and immediately asked the section to reconsider.
“I appreciate the effort to reach a compromise, but my concern is: We have no bait,” said Tooley.
“In Rockland, we have a little over 100,000 pounds of fish at the moment. That is a very minute amount of fish, and we are supporting a lot of communities in Midcoast Maine,” she said. “Given the current situation, we need to go fishing June 1.”
Jennie Bichrest concurred.
“If you would open on June 1st, it would give us one landing day so we could get some fish in some coolers,” she said.
The section took these requests seriously and revised the agreement to allow June 1 as a landing day in exchange for dropping July 6. Allowable landing days fall on Mondays and Tuesdays, although in Maine, the landing day begins at 6 pm the night before and ends at 6 pm on the end-day instead of midnight like in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
The July 7 days-out meeting will be held at the Urban Forestry Center in Portsmouth beginning at 10 am.
For more information, contact ASMFC herring plan coordinator Chris Vonderweidt at (202) 289-6400. His e-mail address is <cvonderweidt@asmfc.org>.
Janice M. Plante
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