The following was released by the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen's Association CHATHAM, Mass. June 21, 2012 – Yesterday, the New England Fishery Management Council finalized new rules for the Atlantic herring fishery, known as Amendment 5. Fishermen from all over New England have been fighting for five years to get better accountability on a fishery dominated by massive vessels which tow huge nets that remove hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish from the ecosystem.
Cape fishermen fought to get onboard observers on every trip the midwater trawlers make. They protested because those vessels did not have to weigh their catch. They sounded the alarm on the practice of dumping, which undermined efforts to get accurate information on catch and bycatch in this high volume fleet.
They have reason to feel hopeful that progress was made yesterday as the council initiated key changes to how the fishery operates by requiring fishery observers on every midwater trawl fishing trip, obligating that the catch be weighed and putting a limit on the amount of times fish can be dumped. They realize that a lot more work will be necessary to hammer out the details and get this on the water quickly, but this decision was momentous.
"It is about time that the industrial herring industry gets held to the standards the rest of us have been held to for years," says Tim Linnell, groundfisherman and owner of F/V Perry's Pride II out of Chatham, Mass. "100 percent monitoring for a gear that takes so much fish indiscriminately out of the ecosystem is not only necessary, but critical to understanding what is going on in that fishery."
"Finally the council did for the herring fishery what every other fishery in New England has had to do for years: required them to accurately weigh and report their catch," says Craig Poosikian, a commercial fisherman from Orleans, Mass. who fishes for striped bass, fluke, scup and sea bass. "No more honor system of estimating how much fish they caught. I welcome them to the club!"
"The council decided that keeping fish from observers by dumping the net before bringing it on board was no longer going to be an option for herring vessels," says Alex Friedman, a commercial tuna and striped bass fisherman from Martha's Vineyard. "They gave the fishery a ton of leeway, but at least they have the threat of trip termination if they keep dumping fish, and that is a good first step in putting accountability on this fleet."
Fishermen who harvest cod, haddock and other bottom-dwelling groundfish were angered that the council did not ban the industrial trawlers from fishing in areas set aside as groundfish sanctuaries. Recent news of plummeting populations of Gulf of Maine cod and Georges Bank yellowtail flounder has rocked the industry.
"Many groundfishermen have sacrificed for years by not fishing in areas that were identified as sanctuaries for spawning and juvenile groundfish," says Ted Ligenza, a traditional jig fisherman on his vessel Riena Marie out of Chatham, Mass. "It's a disgrace that they will continue to be allowed to fish there when we know they get groundfish as bycatch. But at least now they will have to take observers into all of the closed areas when they want to fish there."
The Council will now send its final Amendment 5 document to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval.