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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 1
September 2009
Herring fishery in midst of more change
PORTLAND, ME – Industry members with a stake in Atlantic herring found themselves caught up in a whirlwind of regulatory activity this summer, and the intense schedule of meetings and decision-making didn’t show any signs of abating.
Front and center was the July release of a new stock status update conducted by the Transboundary Resources Assessment Committee (TRAC), which is made up of both US and Canadian scientists. The update was based on data gathered through 2008 and concluded that the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank herring stock complex was not overfished and overfishing was not occurring.
However, the TRAC also found that total stock biomass was down slightly below target, which set off a flurry of concern about what this might mean for future total allowable catch (TAC) levels.
The New England Fishery Management Council’s herring committee met on Aug. 6 and reviewed the TRAC report. Following a presentation by Matt Cieri of the Maine Department of Marine Resources, who served on the TRAC, the committee developed several pertinent questions about the assessment’s methodology and findings for its own Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), which met Aug. 10-11.
The SSC had a packed agenda – and herring was just a small part of the two-day line-up. But the meeting gave the herring committee and the council’s herring plan development team (PDT) a chance to put some issues on the table and seek preliminary SSC guidance.
ABC and specs
This guidance was particularly important to the PDT, which is developing fishery specifications for 2010-2012 based on the latest scientific information available, which currently is the TRAC report.
Under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), the SSC is now responsible for recommending acceptable biological catch (ABC) levels and rebuilding targets for all managed species, including herring. The law further states that annual catch limits developed by the council “may not exceed the fishing level recommendations” of the SSC.
The SSC will meet again Sept. 16 to further discuss herring in a big way and develop its ABC recommendation for the fishery, which will be presented to the full New England council during its Sept. 22-24 meeting in Plymouth, MA.
The council, herring committee, and PDT will use the ABC information in the specification setting process and from there determine TACs for Areas 1A, 1B, 2, and 3.
The herring committee will hold a key Oct. 6 meeting to work on specifications and then meet again jointly the first week of November with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Herring Section to finish this work.
The full New England council will select final 2010-2012 specifications during its Nov. 17-19 meeting and then forward these recommendations to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
Amendments 4, 5
Prior to the TRAC’s release, industry members were intensely focused on the New England council’s decision, made on June 23 during its meeting in Portland, to split draft Amendment 4 to the federal herring plan into two actions – Amendment 4 and Amendment 5.
Amendment 4 previously contained five components:
Annual catch limits (ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs), now required for all fisheries under the MSA;
Catch monitoring program alternatives for the herring fishery;
Measures to address river herring bycatch;
Criteria for midwater trawl access to groundfish closed areas; and
Reconsideration of herring trip limits for some directed mackerel boats.
For Atlantic herring, which are not overfished, ACLs and AMs must be in place by 2011.
Increasingly concerned that it might not be able to complete all of Amendment 4’s workload in time to meet the ACL and AM implementation deadline, the council broached the idea of sliding all parts of Amendment 4 into a new Amendment 5 except for ACLs and AMs.
Tough call
The council reluctantly agreed to this maneuver, but not before several members fought to keep one or more of the original Amendment 4 provisions on the same ACL/AM timeline.
David Pierce of Massachusetts was particularly disturbed by the split.
“My first priority is catch monitoring, not ACLs and AMs,” he said. “What we’re proposing for ACLs and AMs is nothing profound. It’s pretty much what we’ve been doing.”
Many others have voiced this opinion – that the herring fishery, which is regulated through hard, area-by-area quotas, already has ACLs, and since the areas shut down when the TACs are reached, the fishery has built-in AMs as well.
But Pierce’s argument didn’t sway the full council.
Connecticut council member Sally McGee expressed equal concern about shunting bycatch reduction measures for river herring into Amendment 5.
Repeatedly referring to ASMFC’s extraordinary request for emergency action for river herring, McGee said, “ASMFC doesn’t do this every day. Far from it.”
Wanting to further support ASMFC’s initiative, McGee said, “If there’s one thing we can hold on to in Amendment 4, it should be to do some kind of monitoring for river herring.”
Others made additional pitches to retain one measure or another in Amendment 4 but, in the end, the vote to limit Amendment 4 to ACLs and AMs and move everything else to Amendment 5 carried in a 14-to-3 vote.
The council’s herring committee will meet Aug. 24 and again on Sept. 17 specifically to work on catch monitoring options for Amendment 5.
The council is scheduled to cast its final vote on Amendment 4 as early as November – if possible – and, if not, then by February 2010. According to the council staff, a final vote on Amendment 5 should take place at the end of 2010 or early 2011.
Days out, Area 2
While the regulatory activity was peaking, herring fishermen on the water were simply trying to catch fish.
With no fishing allowed in Area 1A until June 1 and with fish showing up in force in Area 2 this year, the 30,000 metric ton (mt) TAC for Area 2 went fast – very fast – compared to previous years when a good part of the TAC went uncaught.
After opening the area on Jan. 1 as scheduled, NMFS shut down Area 2 to all directed herring fishing on April 15 after projecting that 95% of the quota had been harvested.
Meanwhile, ASMFC’s Atlantic Herring Section was closely monitoring the Area 1A fishery, holding regular meetings among its Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts commissioners to determine whether allowable “landing days” should be further restricted to stretch out the available quota.
The most recent days-out meeting was held Aug. 3 and, as a result of a status update on the fishery, commissioners agreed to continue allowing fish to be landed two days per week, as has been the case since the area opened to purse seine and fixed gear boats on June 1.
The area will open to midwater trawl vessels on Oct. 1. Under ASMFC’s new “seasonal” quota allocations, 27.2% of the Area 1A TAC – or just over 11,000 mt for 2009 – is reserved for the fall fishery, which runs from October through December or until the TAC is harvested.
ASMFC projected that with two allowed landing days per week, the Area 1A fall quota will be fully harvested around Nov. 21, give or take, which is expected to be long enough to cover the period of peak lobster landings, when herring bait is in greatest demand.
“If actual catch rates during the rest of the 2009 fishing season differ substantially from predicted catch rates, a days out meeting will be held and days out will be adjusted as necessary,” said ASMFC.
The Area 1A TAC for 2009 is 45,000 mt, which translates into an actual available TAC of roughly 40,993 mt once research set-asides, bycatch deductions, and other adjustments are factored in.
ASMFC’s herring section met Aug. 18 in Alexandria, VA to discuss several issues, including the ongoing 2009 fishery, the TRAC report, the New England council’s Amendments 4 and 5 decision, the upcoming specification process for 2010-2012, the herring small-mesh trawl fishery, and other matters.
Nontraditional advisers
Earlier in August, ASMFC put out a call for “nontraditional stakeholders” to fill two seats on its herring advisory panel.
Nontraditional stakeholders include members of environmental or grassroots organizations and/or individuals with expertise or interest in predator/prey interactions, bycatch, and/or habitat, said ASMFC.
Anyone interested in serving must submit a nomination form to ASFMC by Sept. 10. Forms are available on the commission’s web site at <www.asmfc.org/breakingNews.htm> or by calling (202) 289-6400.
Janice M. Plante
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