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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 37 Number 1
September 2009
Industry awaits word on river herring emergency request
WASHINGTON, DC – Earlier this summer, Commerce Sec. Gary Locke was showered with requests for emergency action to immediately increase observer coverage and monitoring measures for river herring.
Those seeking emergency action said the extra data would enable managers to better estimate the level of river herring bycatch in small-mesh fisheries, especially the Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries.
At press time in late-August, the secretary had yet to announce a position on the various letters and petitions, which came from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, the New England council, and numerous industry and environmental organizations. However, a department spokesperson said responses to the requests were being prepared.
The initiative began with ASMFC, which, in a May 27 letter, asked Locke to take emergency action to implement additional monitoring measures and to support efforts by both councils to address river herring bycatch. “River herring” was defined as blueback herring and alewives.
Illustrating its concern, ASMFC said, “Nearly 500,000 blueback herring were passed annually at the fish lift on the Connecticut River prior to 1986. Last year, 84 fish were observed.”
Noting that during some years, the bycatch of river herring by the Atlantic herring fleet alone could be equal to the total landings for the entire in-river directed fishery on the East Coast, ASMFC stated, “Increased at-sea sampling would have an immediate benefit of identifying the magnitude and location of high bycatch events.”
Mid-Atlantic
The Mid-Atlantic council subsequently voted to support ASMFC.
In its own June 24 letter to the secretary, the council requested “immediate action to increase observer coverage to monitor river herring in the Mid-Atlantic’s small-mesh trawl fisheries.”
The council said it appreciated the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s additional allocation of observer days to assist the council in monitoring its pending butterfish bycatch cap program in the Loligo squid fishery but, given the “expressed concerns about the stock status of river herring” (by ASMFC and others), additional coverage of Mid-Atlantic fisheries was needed.
“I am requesting that sufficient numbers of observer days be allocated to small-mesh fisheries such that acceptably precise estimates of river herring bycatch in all individual small-mesh fisheries, (including) Atlantic mackerel, can be calculated,” wrote council Chairman Rick Robins Jr.
During its Aug. 4-6 meeting, the council further voted to begin the scoping process for Amendment 14 to its Squid, Mackerel, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan. The amendment will address river herring monitoring and/or mortality reduction strategies, as well as squid issues.
New England
For its part, the New England council voted to request secretarial action to implement “an information collection program.”
In a June 26 letter to Locke, the council noted that it was currently preparing an amendment to its Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan “in which specific management measures to address river herring bycatch are being developed.”
Creating an enhanced data collection program “would greatly benefit” the council’s work, said Executive Director Paul Howard.
Furthermore, he wrote, “The council believes that recent and significant concern about the status of river herring and speculation about river herring bycatch in many fisheries warrants the establishment of an information collection program to determine the nature and extent of bycatch occurring in all small-mesh fisheries throughout the range of river herring and shad.”
CCCHFA et al.
Fishery managers weren’t the only ones requesting secretarial river herring intervention.
On June 17, seven different groups petitioned Locke for emergency action: the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association; the Conservation Law Foundation; the Herring Alliance; the Marine Fish Conservation Network; the Martha’s Vineyard/Dukes County Fishermen’s Association; the National Coalition for Marine Conservation; and the Recreational Fishing Alliance.
The petitioners specifically stated that a secretarial emergency action should:
Increase observer coverage in all small-mesh fisheries with a history of river herring bycatch to “levels that allow for accurate fleet-wide extrapolation of bycatch data;”
Achieve 100% observer coverage, including all vessels in pair trawl and daisy-chain teams that take on fish, for all small-mesh fisheries operating in or near locations known to be hotspot areas for river herring bycatch;
Develop near real-time river herring bycatch reports that are “readily accessible to the public;”
Establish temporal and spatial gear restrictions and closures of river herring hotspots if and when bycatch levels exceed acceptable limits;
Require that 100% of the catch in affected federal fisheries be available for sampling with no dumped or “slipped” catch being hidden from observers;
Increase cooperation among state and federal dockside sampling programs to verify observer data;
Identify all herring-like fish to the species level; and
Implement emergency action by Sept. 1 in order to ensure increased monitoring in Quarter 4 of 2009 and Quarter 1 of 2010 when river herring bycatch is likely to peak.
102 groups sign on
In a separate June 23 letter, 102 different groups urged the commerce secretary to “move swiftly on ASMFC’s request for emergency action in federal waters and to explore all resources and options available to assess and minimize river herring bycatch.”
Those signing the letter represented recreational and commercial fishing associations, environmental and conservation organizations, fly fishing groups, marine scientists and science organizations, outdoor enthusiasts, wildlife conservation groups, and faith-based organizations.
The groups cited “limited data” as being a hindrance to stock assessment efforts and said increased observer coverage in both New England and the Mid-Atlantic was needed to obtain more reliable population estimates for the river herring stock assessment that’s scheduled to be completed in 2012. /cfn/
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