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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 11
July 2009
Vessels can land herring from Area 1A two days per week
DURHAM, NH – Directed herring vessels fishing in Area 1A are being restricted to landing fish only two days per week under an agreement reached by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Herring Section. The agreement further limits vessels to landing herring only once per 24-hour period.
The section adopted these restrictions during a May 21 meeting in Durham and agreed to meet again on July 9 to discuss whether additional changes in landing restrictions are needed.
In implementing the agreement, the state of Maine made it “unlawful to land Atlantic herring” harvested from Area 1A “except Sunday from 6 pm until Tuesday 6 pm.” The state further stipulated that vessels “may only land twice during the two 24 hour periods: once between Sunday 6 pm to Monday 6 pm and once between Monday 6 pm to Tuesday 6 pm.”
The commonwealth of Massachusetts told fishermen that vessels may land Area 1A herring “on Mondays and Tuesdays,” with only one landing per day. New Hampshire adopted the same Monday/Tuesday landing days, stating, “Harvesters will be prohibited from landing Atlantic herring taken from Management Area 1A from 12:01 am on Wednesdays to midnight on Sundays.”
Vessels can fish Wednesdays through Sundays but, with the exception of Maine’s rule allowing landings after 6 pm on Sunday, cannot land Atlantic herring from Area 1A on those days. Fixed gear fishermen operating weirs and stop seines are not bound by the two-day landing restriction.
Furthermore, vessels fishing in Area 1A but targeting other species can possess up to 2,000 pounds of herring as an incidental catch, as long as Atlantic herring does not make up more than 10% of the total catch by weight.
Area 1A, located in the inshore Gulf of Maine, is a fixed-gear/purse-seine-only area from June through September. No midwater trawling is permitted during this time period.
Limited TAC
The herring section took this action to stretch out this season’s total allowable catch (TAC), which, like last year for Area 1A, is extremely limited.
The total 2009 TAC for the area is 45,000 metric tons (mt). However, 3% of that tonnage was taken off the top as a research set-aside and 500 mt is held in reserve as a “fixed-gear allocation.”
Furthermore, the National Marine Fisheries Service, which regulates the fishery in federal waters, shuts down the fishery when 95% of the TAC is projected to be harvested in order to save 5% of the quota for bycatch in other fisheries.
So, once all those deductions are factored in, the effective “adjusted” TAC for 2009, as calculated by ASMFC, ends up being 40,993 mt.
Seasonal split
Back in February, ASMFC adopted a seasonal quota system for the fishery under Addendum I to Amendment 2 of the interstate herring plan (see CFN March 2009 for details).
Under the new system and using the 2009 adjusted TAC, this year’s seasonal split is:
January through May – 0%;
June through September – 72.8%, which equals 29,843 mt; and
October through December – 27.2%, which equals 11,150 mt.
ASMFC went to this new system to reserve a portion of the Area 1A fishery for the fall when midwater trawlers regain access to the area and bait demand for the lobster fishery is at its peak.
According to a recent analysis conducted by the Maine Department of Marine Resources, 2008 lobster landings in Maine were heaviest during August, September, and October, running on the order of 13 million to 14 million pounds each month.
For more information about the upcoming July 9 meeting, call ASMFC herring plan coordinator Chris Vonderweidt at (202) 289-6400 or e-mail him at <cvonderweidt@asmfc.org>. /cfn/
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