May 1, 2023 — Herring fishermen in Maine will be getting money from the federal government to help with a decline in the fish’s population, which has caused the herring industry to struggle.
The Maine Department of Marine Resources says the government is sending $7 million in total to permit holders and state licensed holders. Recipients will get a minimum of $15,000.
April 27, 2023 — Fishermen in Maine’s historic herring fishing business will receive money from the federal government to help cope with a decline in the fish’s population that has caused the industry to struggle.
The government has appropriated $7 million for the fishermen, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said Wednesday. Atlantic herring were found to be overfished via a 2020 scientific assessment, and fishing quotas were slashed after that.
The herring are especially important to New England’s fishing industry because they are used as bait by lobster fishermen. They’re also used as food, and people have fished for them from New England waters for hundreds of years.
July 12, 2022 — The New England Fishery Management Council covered three issues related to Atlantic herring when it met June 28-30, 2022 for a hybrid meeting in Portland, Maine.
SPECIFICATIONS: The Council received a brief update on 2023-2025 herring specifications, which are under development. The Herring Plan Development Team (PDT) is working on the action, and the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee will develop the overfishing limit (OFL) and acceptable biological catch (ABC) recommendations at an August 4, 2022 meeting. The annual catch limit (ACL), area-specific sub-ACLs, and other fishery specifications will flow from the ABC. The Herring Advisory Panel and Herring Committee will meet later this summer to review the specifications and recommend preferred alternatives for Council consideration. The Council will take final action during its September 27-29, 2022 meeting.
The specifications will be informed by the peer reviewed results of the June 2022 Herring Management Track Assessment, which was conducted immediately preceding the start of the Council meeting. Herring was last assessed in 2020 and was determined to be overfished, although overfishing was not occurring. Results from the new 2022 assessment are being finalized, but it does not appear the status of the resource has changed much from the previous assessment.
June 15, 2022 — The following was released by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council:
The Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council has approved a revised rebuilding plan and 2023 specifications for Atlantic mackerel. The first rebuilding plan for the stock was implemented in November 2019. However, an updated 2021 stock assessment found that, although the stock size almost tripled between 2014 and 2019, the stock was only 24% rebuilt in 2019 and unlikely to complete rebuilding as anticipated.
The revised rebuilding plan approved by the Council has a 61% probability of rebuilding the stock by 2032. Of the five rebuilding options considered, the Council selected this approach because it has a high probability of successfully rebuilding the stock while avoiding the severe economic impacts that would likely occur with some of the other alternatives. Compared to the original rebuilding plan, the revised plan uses lower predicted recruitment in projections to reduce the chance of underperforming stock growth predictions again.
The Council also voted to implement a first-ever federal waters recreational possession limit for Atlantic mackerel for 2023. Recreational catches of Atlantic mackerel have been relatively low historically, but recreational restrictions were deemed appropriate to achieve the total catch reduction required under the rebuilding plan. The Council had initially considered possession limits in the range of 10 to 15 fish per person, but they ultimately recommended a 20-fish per person limit based on the limited historical recreational catch and the importance of mackerel for recreational fishermen (including as bait). This limit is expected to reduce recreational catch by about 17%. Coordination with states that have substantial recreational mackerel catches (MA, NH, and ME) occurred during development of the plan, and it is hoped that these states will mirror the federal rules for their state waters in 2023.
Under the selected rebuilding plan, the acceptable biological catch (ABC) will be 8,094 metric tons (MT) for 2023. After accounting for expected Canadian catch, recreational catch, and commercial discards, the Council recommended setting the 2023 commercial quota at 3,639 MT. This quota is 79% lower than the initial 2021 rebuilding quota. A new Management Track Assessment will be available next year to inform 2024-2025 specifications.
The Council also discussed potentially scaling down the river herring and shad cap, currently set at 129 MT, in response to the reduced commercial quota. However, given the challenges associated with monitoring a very small cap, including potential closures based on a few observed trips, the Council voted to maintain the cap at 129 MT for 2023.
Finally, the Council agreed to request that NOAA Fisheries provide additional outreach and compliance assistance regarding the appropriate permitting and catch reporting for both commercial and for-hire vessels. Additional outreach should address any ambiguity regarding the need to have a permit and submit electronic vessel trip reports (eVTRs) by these vessels.
The Council will submit this amendment to the Secretary of Commerce for approval and implementation. Updates will be posted on the Atlantic Mackerel Rebuilding 2.0 page. For additional information about this action, contact Jason Didden at jdidden@mafmc.org or (302) 526-5254.
June 2, 2022 — The federal government is giving $11 million to New England herring fishermen following a declared disaster within the industry.
However, some experts claim the situation was avoidable.
Overfishing herring created the situation in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New England, according to Niaz Dorry, director of the North American Marine Alliance.
In November, the federal government declared a “fishery disaster” allowing assistance in tax dollars to flow into the region, the Gloucester Daily Times in Massachusetts reported. Maine will receive $7 million, Massachusetts over $3.2 million, New Hampshire will receive $600,000, and Rhode Island is set to receive $241,299.
Read the full story at The Center Square
May 27, 2022 — The 2022 herring season in the U.S. state of Alaska has concluded successfully, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
In recent years, the fishery’s value has been estimated at around USD 5 million (EUR 4.7 million), down from the record of USD 55 million (EUR 51.3 million) in 1988, with most of the fish sold to Japan. Herring roe, or kazunoko in Japanese, is commonly eaten during Oseibo, the Japanese Christmas season.
May 10, 2022 — Commercial fishermen in four northeastern states will share $11million of federal government assistance.
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced Thursday that the herring industry in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island will get financial assistance to recoup losses in the Atlantic herring industry which was declared a “fishery disaster” by the federal government last year.
Herring are a crucial part of the region’s commercial fishing industry because they are used for bait, which has been in short supply in recent years, according to federal regulators.
Maine will be getting the largest chunk of the funding, or nearly $7.2 million, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which says it will work with the Maine Department of Marine Resources to administer these funds.
“The drastic reduction in Atlantic herring quotas has caused significant losses in primary income and threatened job security for many in the herring industry,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who pushed for the federal relief funds. “This financial assistance provided through the designation is crucial to the survival of Maine’s Atlantic herring fishery.”
New Hampshire is getting $600,000 from the allocation, according to the federal agency, which was welcomed by members of the state’s congressional delegation.
Read the full story at The Center Square
May 9, 2022 — NOAA Fisheries has awarded Maine $7,191,787 to provide disaster assistance for the state’s struggling Atlantic herring fishery. NOAA Fisheries will work with the Maine Department of Marine Resources to administer these funds.
“The drastic reduction in Atlantic herring quotas has caused significant losses in primary income and threatened job security for many in the herring industry,” said Senator [Susan] Collins, in a news release. “Given the unstable status of our Atlantic herring fishery, and its role in supporting Maine’s iconic lobster industry, I advocated for the State of Maine’s commercial fishery failure declaration request. This financial assistance provided through the designation is crucial to the survival of Maine’s Atlantic herring fishery.”
May 6, 2022 — Disaster-level instability in the Atlantic herring industry has prompted the federal government to give $11 million to commercial fishermen and shore-side infrastructure in four states.
A scientific assessment in 2020 found that herring are overfished, and quotas for the fish were reduced dramatically. The federal government declared a “fishery disaster” in November, clearing the way for assistance.
Atlantic herring are vital because they’re used as bait by commercial lobstermen — who’ve been plagued by a bait crunch for years — as well as for food.
April 14, 2022 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated a benchmark stock assessment for river herring to be completed in the summer of 2023. River herring is the collective name for two closely related species, alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), that return to rivers from Maine through Florida to spawn every year. The goals of the assessment are to evaluate the health of stocks along the Atlantic coast and inform management of these species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data.
The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will contribute to the goals of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on abundance including run counts and surveys, stocking, biological samples (sex, maturity, age, weight, length), life history information (growth, fecundity, natural mortality, sex ratio, spawning history), stock structure (tagging data, genetics), mortality (predator diet, anthropogenic sources such as hydropower dams), and catch (harvest, discard, fishing effort). An essential need is data to inform the stock assessment of discards and bycatch in other directed fisheries (e.g. the Atlantic herring fishery). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by July 1, 2022.
The Commission will hold a Data Workshop July 12-14, 2022 via webinar to review all available data sources for river herring and identify datasets to be incorporated in the stock assessment. The Data Workshop is open to the public. To register for the webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5539956829101821456. (Webinar ID 375-897-411).
For more information on submitting data, including the appropriate format, and/or attending the River Herring Data Workshop, please contact Katie Drew, Stock Assessment Team Lead, at kdrew@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.