June 28, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (Commission) Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts revised the effort control measures for the 2017 Area 1A Trimester 2 (June 1 – September 30) fishery as follows. The revised measures are underlined. Please note the time and passcode for the next Days Out Meeting on July 12th have changed. The meeting will begin at 1:30 PM and the new passcode is 222918.
Days Out of the Fishery
- Vessels with a herring Category A permit that have declared into the Trimester 2 Area 1A fishery may land herring four (4) consecutive days a week. One landing per 24 hour period. Vessels are prohibited from landing or possessing herring caught from Area 1A during a day out of the fishery.
- Landing days in New Hampshire and Massachusetts begin on Monday of each week at 12:01 a.m.
- Landings days in Maine begin on Sunday of each week at 6:00 p.m.
- Small mesh bottom trawl vessels with a herring Category C or D permit that have declared into the Trimester 2 fishery may land herring seven (7) consecutive days a week.
Weekly Landing Limit
- Vessels with a herring Category A permit may harvest up to 600,000 lbs (15 trucks) per harvester vessel, per week.
- 80,000 lbs out of the 600,000 lb weekly limit can be transferred to a carrier vessel (see below).
At-Sea Transfer and Carrier Restrictions (no changes were made)
The following applies to harvester vessels with a herring Category A permit and carrier vessels landing herring caught in Area 1A to a Maine, New Hampshire or Massachusetts port.
- A harvester vessel cannot transfer herring at-sea to another catcher vessel.
- A harvester vessel is limited to making at-sea transfers to only one carrier vessel per week.
- Carrier vessels are limited to receiving at-sea transfers from one catcher vessel per week and can land once per 24 hour period. A carrier vessel may land up to 80,000 lbs
- (2 trucks) per week. The carrier limit of 2 trucks is not in addition to the harvester weekly landing limit. Carrier vessel: a vessel with no gear on board capable of catching or processing fish. Harvester vessel: a vessel that is required to report the catch it has aboard as the harvesting vessel on the Federal Vessel Trip Report.
The initial Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (ACL) is 31,115 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for a carryover from 2015 and the research set-aside. The Section allocated 72.8% of the sub-ACL to Trimester 2 and 27.2% to Trimester 3. After incorporating the 295 mt fixed gear set-aside and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL) the seasonal quotas are 20,625 mt for Trimester 2 and 7,706 mt for Trimester 3.
These effort controls are projected to extend the Trimester 2 fishery through mid-September. Landings will be monitored closely and the fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days when the trimester’s quota is projected to be reached.
The Atlantic Herring Section members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts are scheduled to reconvene via conference call to review fishing effort the following days:
- Wednesday, July 12 at 1:30 PM
- Wednesday, July 26 at 10:00 AM
- Wednesday, August 9 at 10:00 AM
To join the calls, please dial 888.394.8197 and enter passcode 222918 as prompted.
Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A until June 4 or 5, 2017, depending on the state. Please contact Ashton Harp, Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan Coordinator, at aharp@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740 for more information.