Saving Seafood

Drastic cut to herring quota puts Maine lobstermen over the bait barrel

October 22, 2018 — The threat of a huge cut in next year’s herring catch quota has Maine bait dealers scrambling to find alternative ways to satisfy the voracious appetite of the state’s $1.4 billion lobster industry.

The New England Fishery Management Council voted last month to set the 2019 herring quota at 3.2 million pounds – about 78 million pounds less than what the East Coast herring fleet is permitted to catch this year – to help the population recover from a record-low number of juvenile herring. To put the cut in context, that is about 2,000 tractor-trailer trucks of the industry’s favorite bait that won’t be showing up in New England lobster ports next year.

“We knew we’d be losing a lot of herring quota since we first heard about the bad stock assessment, so we’ve had some time to prepare,” said Mary Beth Tooley, who oversees government and regulatory affairs for O’Hara Corp. in Rockland, Maine’s largest bait dealer. “We have someone out on the West Coast right now looking for new sources of frozen bait. But I don’t think people understand how bad it’s going to be.”

Some fishermen have told Tooley they aren’t worried about the bait shortage because they don’t use herring. Some have switched to pogy or rockfish because it fishes better for them, while others have weaned themselves off herring, or found ways to conserve bait use, because they saw the collapse coming. But as more fishermen look to other bait species, the prices of those species are likely to rise and their availability shrink, Tooley predicted.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Atlantic Herring Massachusetts/New Hampshire Spawning Closure in Effect October 26 through November 22, 2018

October 19, 2018 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic herring Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) fishery regulations include seasonal spawning closures for portions of state and federal waters in Eastern Maine, Western Maine, and Massachusetts/New Hampshire. The Atlantic States marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Management Board (previously Atlantic Herring Section) approved a forecasting method that relies upon at least three samples, each containing at least 25 female herring in gonadal states III-V, to trigger a spawning closure.

Eight samples of female herring were collected to evaluate spawning condition. Based on the analysis of the samples, the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area will be closed starting at 12:00 a.m. on October 26, 2018 extending through 11:59 p.m. on November 22, 2018. Vessels in the directed Atlantic herring fishery cannot take, land or possess Atlantic herring caught within the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area during this time and must have all fishing gear stowed when transiting through the area. An incidental bycatch allowance of up to 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip/calendar day applies to vessels in non-directed fisheries that are fishing within the Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area.

The Massachusetts/New Hampshire spawning area includes all waters bounded by the Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine coasts, and 43° 30’ N and 70° 00’ W.

Please contact Megan Ware at 703.842.0740 or mware@asmfc.org for more information.

A copy of the announcement can be found here – http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/MA_NHSpawningClosure_Oct2018.pdf.

Lower herring quotas squeeze lobster trade

October 19, 2018 — Nothing new, but for the fishing industry nothing is as constant as change.

Last year, according to the Department of Marine Resources, lobster was Maine’s most valuable fishery with landings of 110,819,760 pounds — the sixth highest ever — worth some $450,799,283.

Despite all the talk about high value species such as scallops and elvers, according to DMR herring were the state’s second most valuable commercial fishery in 2017.

Herring boats like the Sunlight and the Starlight owned by the O’Hara Corp. in Rockland or the Portland-based trawler Providian landed some 66,453,073 pounds of herring worth about $17.9 million at a record price of 27 cents per pound.

Most of those landings went to the dealers who supply herring — the primary source of bait for the lobster industry — to fishermen up and down the coast. And most of those herring came from what is known as “Area 1-A,” the inshore waters of the Gulf of Maine.

All that is going to change.

Faced with data that indicates the herring population, an important source of food for whales, tuna and seabirds, among other species, regulators at the New England Fisheries Management Council last week recommended drastic steps to reduce the amount of herring that fishermen will be allowed to catch.

If approved by NOAA Fisheries, the 2019 landings quota for herring would be set at just 14,558 metric tons (about 32 million pounds). That cut comes on top of an already sharp reduction imposed this past summer.

In the middle of the year, the quota was cut by more than half, from 110,000 metric tons (242.5 million pounds) to about 50,000 metric tons (some 110.2 million pounds).

Maine lobstermen were already worried about what last summer’s cut would do to bait availability. Last week’s decision suggests that herring will be in extremely short supply and that what is available will be extremely expensive.

In 2013, Maine Lobstermen’s Association Executive Director Patrice McCarron said, fishermen were paying $30 a bushel for bait. Last summer, a bushel cost about $45 on the coast, $60 on the islands.

On the O’Hara Lobster Bait website this week, the price of herring was quoted at $175 for a 400-pound barrel (44 cents per pound) or $690 for an 1,800-pound tank (about 38 cents per pound).

Whatever the cost, lobstermen use a lot of bait — thousands of pounds in a year.

Read the full story at The Ellsworth American

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD: Proposed lobster rules not based on science

October 16, 2018 — A scientific paper that called for stricter regulations on Maine’s lobster fishery to protect endangered right whales plainly illustrates a two-sided problem.

We need policymakers who will rely on science. And they need science that they can rely on. If either side of the equation is missing, nothing works.

When we talk about climate change, we are used to politicians who ignore the science. But this time, it was the scientists who let us down.

A report issued by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in advance of a big regulatory conference singled out stronger ropes, which, they said, are being used by Maine lobstermen and are entangling whales as they migrate through Maine waters.

The report’s authors proposed more gear changes and possible closures in some areas to respond to a rising number of whale deaths. They attributed the fatal entanglements to an unintended consequence of earlier regulations, which limited the number of vertical lines in the water, thus requiring longer strings of traps. “While this reduced the number of lines, it also meant that lines had to be stronger to accommodate the increased load of multiple traps,” the report’s authors wrote.

Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald

Herring, key to coastal health, slowly returning to rivers

October 15, 2018 — A little fish on the East Coast that once provided vital protein for American colonists and bait for generations of New England lobstermen is slowly making a comeback after falling victim to lost habitat and environmental degradation.

River herring once appeared headed to the endangered species list, but they’re now starting to turn up in rivers and streams at a rate that fishing regulators say is encouraging. The fish is a critical piece of the ecosystem in the eastern states, where it serves as food for birds and larger fish.

The comeback is most noticeable in Maine, the state with by far the largest river herring fishery in the country. Maine fishermen capture alewives, a species of river herring, and their catch of nearly 1.7 million pounds last year was the second largest in the last 37 years.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The News Tribune

Feds asked to take action to prevent herring overfishing

October 4, 2018 — Fisheries managers in New England are asking the federal government to take action to try to reduce the possibility of overfishing in the herring fishery.

Herring is an important small fish on the East Coast, and recent assessments of the stock show that it is in decline.

The New England Fishery Management Council recently approved a host of new restrictions for the fishery, voting to supplement severe rollbacks of herring quotas with a new inshore buffer zone aimed specifically at preventing mid-water trawlers — such as Gloucester-based Cape Seafoods’ 141-foot boats, Challenger and Endeavour — from fishing within 12 miles of shore in most areas of the Northeast.

In some areas around Cape Cod, the buffer zone expands to 20 to 25 miles.

The council also has requested the National Marine Fisheries Service set catch limits for next year’s fishery. If approved, 2019 catch levels will be capped at 21,226 metric tons — less than half of the 50,000 metric tons allowed in 2018.

The council says swift action by the federal agency is needed to “reduce the probability of overfishing.”

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NEFMC SSC – Listen Live – Wednesday, October 10, 2018, Scallop and Herring Issues

October 3, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

The New England Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) will meet on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 to discuss scallop and herring issues.  The public is invited to attend in person or listen live via webinar or telephone.  Here are the details.

MEETING LOCATION:  Hilton Garden Inn, Boston Logan Airport, 100 Boardman Street, Boston, MA.  Hotel information is available here.

START TIME:  9:00 a.m.

WEBINAR REGISTRATION:  Online access to the meeting will be available at Listen Live. There is no charge to access the meeting through this webinar.

CALL-IN OPTION:  To listen by telephone, dial +1 (631) 992-3221. The access code is 285-275-351.  Please be aware that if you dial in, your regular phone charges will apply.

AGENDA:  The SSC will:

  • Review the results of the recent Atlantic sea scallop benchmark stock assessment and information provided by the Council’s Scallop Plan Development Team (PDT);
  • Recommend overfishing limits (OFLs) and acceptable biological catches (ABCs) for Atlantic sea scallops for the 2019 and 2020 fishing years with 2020 levels serving as defaults;
  • Review results of the recent Atlantic herring benchmark stock assessment and information provided by the Council’s Herring PDT;
  • Recommend 2019-2021 OFLs and ABCs for Atlantic herring using the Council’s proposed Amendment 8 ABC control rule, as well as the assessment and PDT information; and
  • Discuss other business as necessary.

COMMENTS:  The deadline for submitting written comments for consideration at this meeting is 5 p.m. on Friday, October 5, 2018.  Address comments to Council Chairman Dr. John Quinn or Executive Director Tom Nies and email them to comments@nefmc.org.  The address for mailing comments via the U.S. Postal Service is:  New England Fishery Management Council, 50 Water Street, Mill #2, Newburyport, MA  01950.

MATERIALS:  Meeting materials will be posted on the Council’s website at SSC October 10, 2018 documents.

QUESTIONS:  Contact Joan O’Leary at (978) 465-0492 ext. 106, joleary@nefmc.org or Janice Plante at (607) 592-4817, jplante@nefmc.org.

‘The Wave Of The Future Is Breaking, Right Here In Maine’ – Aquaculture And Maine Entrepreneurs

October 2, 2018 — Maine’s 21st century saltwater farmers are using new techniques and technology to produce scallops, oysters, salmon and eels — to name just a few. All this week Maine Public Radio is profiling innovators who want to take Maine’s aquaculture industry to the next level.

Maine Public reporter Fred Bever has spent some time with these entrepreneurs, reporting for our series, “Aquaculture’s Next Wave.” He joined Nora Flaherty on Maine Things Considered to discuss the project.

Flaherty: Fred, you’ve been doing a lot of reporting on this. What’s the bottom line?

Bever: The bottom line is that Maine fishermen are increasingly turning to farming fish and shellfish as a hedge against uncertainty about the wild fisheries.

Now, is that because the Gulf of Maine is warming so fast? Is it overfishing?

It’s both, and there are other factors, but the Gulf is warming faster than most saltwater bodies on the planet, which is disrupting ecosystems and wild-caught harvests. The herring fishery is recently in trouble — we’ve seen a lot about that in the news lately — but cod, urchin, Maine shrimp, they’re all restricted now or completely off-limits.

But the warmer waters have been good for lobster populations here and for the lobster industry, right?

Incredibly good, we’ve seen record hauls this decade. But an appreciable number of lobstermen are not taking that for granted. Lobster populations are slowly moving north and east, herring for bait are an issue now, and the plight of the North Atlantic right whale threatens to force expensive, and maybe prohibitive, gear changes by fishermen.

Read the full story at Maine Public

NEFMC Approves Atlantic Herring Amendment 8; Asks NMFS to Set 2019 Catch Limits

October 2, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:

On September 25 during its meeting in Plymouth, MA, the New England Fishery Management Council approved Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. The Council also asked the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, NOAA Fisheries) to develop an in-season action to set 2019 specifications for the herring fishery.

ABC Control Rule:

  • The acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule is a formula that will be used to set annual catch limits. The Council considered close to a dozen alternatives that would allow different levels of fishing mortality depending on the estimated level of herring biomass in the ecosystem. In the end, the Council adopted a control rule that balances many objectives by capping overall fishing mortality at 80% of sustainable levels. Previously, fishermen were allowed to harvest up to 100% of sustainable catch levels. Under the proposed control rule, a portion of the available catch would be set aside to explicitly account for the important role of Atlantic herring as forage with in the ecosystem. The new control rule also will better address uncertainty in year-to-year variation in biomass estimates. While the control rule will reduce catches in the near term, it has a lower probability of resulting in overfishing than previous methods used to set catch limits.

Read the full release here

Lobstermen fear 2019 bait crisis due to herring quota cuts

October 1, 2018 — Herring and lobster fishermen alike expressed concern that quota cuts and vessel restrictions in the herring fishery approved this week by the New England Fishery Management Council will hurt Maine’s lobster fishery next season.

Maine Public reported the regulatory agency approved a quota of around 15,000 tons for next year, down from 55,000 this year. It also established a 12-mile buffer zone for large fishing boats called mid-water trawlers that will prevent them from fishing close to shore.

Ryan Raber, co-owner of Portland bait business New England Fish Co., told Maine Public he’d likely have to lay off some crew and staff. Patrice McCarron, the executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, predicted acute bait shortages in the lobster fishery.

Earlier this summer, the prospect of a shortage of herring bait for Maine’s lobster fishing fleet drove price increases for bait fish and fueled concern about the long-term availability of bait in future years.

The herring fishery is overseen by the New England Fishery Management Council. The quota is driven by a 2018 benchmark stock assessment, conducted by the Atlantic Herring Stock Assessment Working Group. The assessment indicated that recruitment — incoming year classes of newly born fish — has been poor for several years. The working group said that four of the six lowest estimates of herring recruitment occurred in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Read the full story at MaineBiz