Stopping mid-water trawling and allowing purse seining only for large-scale summer herring harvesting within the Management Area 1-A have caused Gloucester’s two big herring operators — Peter Mullen at Harbor Loop and Gerry O’Neill Sr. of Cape Seafoods Inc. and Western Sea Fishing Co. at the Jodrey State Fish Pier — much anxiety.
It’s also cost them money.
Mullen put a seine aboard his Western Venture three years ago, and O’Neill is working on a seining solution right now with a new partner.
Area 1-A, which largely runs inshore to mid-shore in the Gulf of Maine, became seine-only for the mid-water trawl fleet about three years ago from June through September. The rules further allow 75 percent of that zone’s 43,650 metric ton annual quota, down from 60,000 metric tons, to be netted during those months.