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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 35 Number 1
September 2007
Herring stakeholders seek action in 2008
PORTLAND, ME – The recently formed Herring Alliance and the Coalition for Atlantic Herring’s Orderly, Informed, and Responsible Long Term Development (CHOIR) are asking the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to increase observer coverage on herring midwater trawl vessels and US at-sea processors.
Furthermore, the two groups have launched an aggressive campaign urging the New England Fishery Management Council to identify herring as a workload “priority” for 2008. The alliance and CHOIR have asked the council to initiate a framework adjustment to the herring plan to “fix” what they call “glaring deficiencies” in existing herring regulations.
The Herring Alliance, which was founded in late May by The Pew Charitable Trusts, is a coalition of environmental groups whose members include the Conservation Law Foundation, Earthjustice, Greenpeace, the National Resources Defense Council, the National Coalition for Marine Conservation, The Ocean Conservancy, and others. Peter Baker, the former chairman of CHOIR, is the alliance’s project manager.
Meanwhile, fishermen and industry members involved in the directed herring fishery have been working with Congress to obtain fiscal year 2008 funding for herring cooperative research.
In a memo intended to update the council and interested parties about this effort, leaders of the Northwest Atlantic Small Pelagic Resource Oversight Group, which represents the vast majority of vessels and companies landing and handling Atlantic herring throughout the Northeast, wrote:
“Many stakeholders have been expressing their opinions about the herring fishery and the status of the resource. It is time to move beyond opinions and manage the fishery on a scientific basis. What is needed now is a larger, adequately funded effort to alleviate scientific uncertainty and allow for this century old New England fishery to prosper.”
Leaders of the oversight group include: Mary Beth Tooley of the Small Pelagics Group; Jeff Kaelin of Ocean Spray Partnership; Peter Moore of the American Pelagic Association; Greg DiDomenico of the Garden State Seafood Association; and David Ellenton of Cape Seafoods.
Committee meeting
All of these issues began building steam this past spring.
And then, at a May 3 meeting, the council’s pelagics committee, at the urging of CHOIR members in particular, voted to recommend that the full New England council:
“Take action so that NMFS can require at-sea processors to take observers in the most expedient way possible,” and
Specify that “catcher boats be required to deliver the entire codend to the processor, to the extent possible, so that accurate observations can be made.”
Alliance emerges
Following that meeting, CHOIR, whose members include tuna fishermen and others concerned about maintaining adequate levels of herring as a forage species, underwent a leadership change.
Bluefin tuna fisherman Steve Weiner took over the chairmanship. Simultaneously, the Herring Alliance came into being with its campaign being led by Baker.
Next, the alliance staged a June 20 press conference on the Portland waterfront to coincide with the New England council’s three-day meeting in town.
The purpose of the press conference, said Baker, was to bring attention to the group’s effort to gain additional observer coverage for the herring fishery and more regulatory oversight in general.
“From our point of view, NMFS is not adequately monitoring what is happening in the herring fishery,” he said.
Shortly after the press conference ended, the New England council addressed the pelagic committee’s recommendations.
NMFS weighs in
In the interim period between the committee and council meetings, NMFS researched the US at-sea processor issue and sent a letter to the council explaining that at-sea processors were already required to carry observers if requested.
As a result, pelagics committee chairman David Pierce of Massachusetts said, “My take on this is that a portion of the (committee’s recommendation) is moot.”
However, many council members remained unsettled about the issue and, in the end, voted to send a letter to NMFS “requesting clarification of regulations to observer coverage on harvesting and at-sea processors following the implementation of herring Amendment 1.”
NMFS responded to the council’s letter on July 16. (See story next page for excerpts.)
Priorities
Pierce then asked the council if it wanted to address the second part of the committee’s recommendation – the part related to taking action to require catcher boats to deliver the entire codend to the processor.
“If the council feels it’s important to do this, we need to initiate a framework,” said Pierce.
Council Chairman John Pappalardo of Massachusetts expressed concern about starting a new action, especially since the council recently had turned down several other requests in various fisheries.
“We’ve chosen to not reprioritize our workload at the last few meetings,” he said. “My recommendation is that this issue become part of the debate at our November meeting when we set priorities for 2008.”
After a brief discussion, the council voted to table this part of the herring motion until November.
Action alert
In preparation for the council meeting, Herring Alliance members and CHOIR sent out an “action alert” encouraging interested parties to submit letters to both the council and NMFS calling for the initiation of a framework adjustment.
As of mid-June, the council had received hundreds of these form letters and e-mails, as well as others from a previous alert regarding herring, which came in from around the country. As of early August, well over 2,000 had come in.
Pierce acknowledged that the alerts “generated a lot of concern.”
“It’s a real issue for a lot of people. We know that’s the case,” he said.
The latest batch of letters asked the council to include the following items in a framework:
Mandatory industry-funded observer coverage for midwater trawlers and US at-sea processors;
A requirement to bring all fish aboard for sampling (no dumping of bags at sea);
An ecosystem-based area total allowable catch (TAC) setting process that takes the needs of predators into account;
A mandatory weigh-master system whenever midwater trawl ships unload that reports catch and bycatch daily; and
An inshore buffer zone that keeps midwater trawl ships at least 50 miles from shore.
CHOIR’s Steve Weiner said to the council, “Hopefully you can put us on the priority list for 2008. The sooner the better that these issues can be addressed.”
IVR shift
Both CHOIR and the Herring Alliance expressed significant concern about TAC monitoring, noting that the Area 1A January-May TAC of 5,000 metric tons had been significantly exceeded this year.
For the past eight years, the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) had provided weekly reports of herring landings as a courtesy to all herring stakeholders even though the reporting program was required by NMFS, not the state.
In early June, NMFS took over the task of posting the information on the Northeast Regional Office web site.
DMR said in a message to interested parties, “This new change will allow for the reporting of herring to be consistent with all other federally monitored stocks, including mackerel, herring bycatch, fluke, scup, squid, etc.”
At the June council meeting, NMFS Regional Administrator Pat Kurkul acknowledged the longstanding, cooperative relationship NMFS had with Maine DMR in collecting landings information.
However, given the intense scrutiny of the fishery these days, she said, “We’re going to take over full responsibility in monitoring that quota.”
Monitoring can be a challenge, however, as evidenced by what happened in Area 1A.
“Landings had been fairly low,” said Kurkul. And then a surge in fishing activity at the end of May quickly resulted in a quota overage.
“We just need to find a different way to do this,” she said.
Directed fishery
The intense pressure by CHOIR and the Herring Alliance has greatly frustrated directed herring fishermen who emphasize the healthy status of the resource and the extensive network of regulations already in place, which include significant TAC reductions in the inshore Gulf of Maine and a June-September ban on midwater trawling in Area 1A.
“According to scientists, the Atlantic herring stock appears to be in excellent health and the fishery is annually removing a conservative 10% of available fish,” stated the Northwest Atlantic Small Pelagic Resource Oversight Group.
Noting that one NMFS scientist recently described the herring biomass as “one of the largest in the Northeast” during a seminar held at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the oversight group said, “Continuing to severely reduce allowable catch of herring in the Gulf of Maine without sufficient science is unacceptable to fishermen who rely on access to one of the most robust stocks of fish in the region.”
What’s next
In September, herring plan coordinator Lori Steele will provide a herring stock status and fishery update for the council.
The overview will cover general fishery information related to landings and bycatch, as well as survey updates and a summary of recent regulatory actions.
The meeting will be held Sept. 18-20 at the Radisson Hotel in Plymouth, MA. For more information, call the council office at (978) 465-0492.
Janice M. Plante
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