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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 36 Number 1
September 2008
CCZ, river herring issues up for comment
PLYMOUTH, MA – Massachusetts inshore fishermen may see a slight easing up of cod restrictions next year. The state Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) and the Marine Fisheries Commission are proposing to scale back the upcoming Cod Conservation Zone (CCZ) season by one month.
The proposal, which changes the CCZ dates from Dec. 1 through Feb. 28 to Dec. 1 through Jan. 31, will be presented at public hearings in mid-September in Plymouth, Gloucester, and Vineyard Haven (see Coming Events page 26B for times and locations).
Fully established in 2005 to protect some of the region’s last substantial aggregations of large cod, the CCZ covers an area in Massachusetts Bay between Salem and Boston out to the three mile limit.
During the CCZ season, it is unlawful to harvest cod in the area. The prohibition applies to gillnets, trawls, otter trawls, midwater trawls, seines, and all hook-and-line gears, including longlines, rod and reel, and handlines.
At its June 12 meeting, the commission received an update from DMF on research conducted in the CCZ. Data on the amount of cod in the area was collected through fishery-dependent sampling and vessel trip reports, a fishery-independent industry-based survey (IBS), and hydroacoustic surveys.
According to a DMF summary of the research, “IBS work conducted throughout the Gulf of Maine indicates that Massachusetts Bay has the highest abundance of adult cod in the entire Gulf of Maine” and the CCZ area covers a large percentage of the state waters portion of this abundance.
Still, the cod “have a very patchy distribution within the CCZ, and aggregations tended to move throughout the CCZ over time.”
Altogether, the information documented the fact that the abundance of adult cod in the CCZ declines in late January and early February, leading to the DMF recommendation to reduce the length of the closure.
River herring
During its Aug. 7 meeting in Plymouth, the commission also agreed to take a DMF proposal to public hearing that would extend the existing moratorium on the harvest, sale, and possession of river herring for another three years.
The moratorium was first imposed in Massachusetts in 2006 due to serious declines all along the eastern seaboard of alewife and blueback herring, collectively known as river herring.
Other states, including Rhode Island, Connecticut, and North Carolina, also closed their river herring fisheries, and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) is developing an amendment to its Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Shad and River Herring to address stock declines and control fishing mortality.
Despite the closure, there is little indication that river herring populations have rebounded and, without action by DMF, the state’s existing moratorium will expire at the end of this year.
“The decline is being studied, and we think we’re making good progress in understanding the factors involved,” said DMF Director Paul Diodati.
He added that he hoped to bring that information to the commission before the mid-September public hearings.
Lara Slifka of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association asked DMF and the commission to consider making such a presentation to the public.
“Just as it is beneficial for the commission to hear about an update, so, too, it is for the citizens of Massachusetts,” she said. “A lot of people are interested.”
DMF Deputy Director David Pierce said it was likely the new research would show that there are a number of factors involved in the coastwide decline of river herring.
“I suspect it will show (bycatch) in a number of fisheries such as squid and whiting, not just in the midwater trawl fleet,” he said. “At times, the midwater trawl fleet bycatch can be significant but it is spotty.”
Diodati added that predation was probably one cause of river herring declines.
“The increase in striped bass abundance will likely be a significant factor,” he said.
Tolerances
While the moratorium extension proposal wasn’t itself controversial, there was substantial discussion over the related issue of what the tolerance for bycatch landings of river herring should be in other fisheries.
Currently, state regulations allow for a 5% tolerance by number of fish landed in bait fisheries, according to Diodati.
However, the directed sea herring fishery catches herring for use as both bait and food and so, he explained in a memo to the commission, “We must change the tolerance language to encompass food fisheries.”
Also, Diodati said there was a problem in the sea herring fishery with gauging the tolerance as a number of fish since sea herring landings are measured by weight.
To address this conflict, DMF proposed asking the public to comment on a “tolerance of 1% by weight to replace the current 5% by count.” However, Diodati added, “We will take comment on a range from 0% -5%.”
There was immediate concern from some commission members and industry people in the audience over the idea of accepting comment on “0%” bycatch.
“Zero is ridiculous,” said commission member Bill Adler, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. “It is completely unrealistic. I don’t think ‘zero’ should be offered at all.”
Dave Ellenton of Cape Seafoods in Gloucester agreed.
“Midwater trawlers haven’t caught a single pound of fish since Jan. 1. We’ve been tied to the wharf. If river herring has been caught, it hasn’t been by the midwater trawlers,” he said.
In the end, the commission approved a motion “to take to public hearing in September a continuation of the river herring moratorium (to expire after three years) and include a range of bycatch tolerances of 1% to 5% for any batch of fish.”
Days out
As a housekeeping measure, the commission also approved giving DMF the authority to make changes to sea herring days out in a more timely way than requiring the full commission to meet to cast a formal vote.
Pierce and Diodati said the action was needed to ensure that this year’s Area 1 sea herring quota wasn’t harvested too quickly. After set-asides and bycatch allowances, the quota is the lowest it’s ever been at just over 40,000 metric tons.
If the catch rate is too high, managers will need the flexibility to implement additional days out so that the herring boats can supply bait to the lobster fishery through the height of its season, they said.
Other business
Several other matters came up before the commission during its Aug. 7 meeting, including the following.
• Groundfish aid – Diodati said that DMF was on track with processing applications for the federal “Framework 42, Massachusetts Groundfish Relief” grant and expected to send out checks to qualifying fishermen by the end of August.
• Law Enforcement – Representatives of the Massachusetts Environmental Police reported seizing some 390 traps on the North Shore for failure to comply with sinking groundline and breakaway whale protection requirements. Environmental police officers also took action on a number of short lobster, illegal lobster diving, and summer flounder overage cases. And
• Resignation – Mark Weissman, a commission member for some 15 years, announced that his term had expired and he would not be seeking reappointment.
Diodati thanked Weissman for his “outstanding” service, and commission member Mark Amorello noted that, with Weissman’s departure, the commission would be “losing a lot of institutional memory.”
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