The closure will allow the fish to spawn.
October 30, 2017 — Part of the New England herring fishery will be shut down for two weeks to allow the fish to spawn.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says samples from Massachusetts and New Hampshire show a high number of spawning herring in the area. That means a stretch of coast and ocean from Cape Cod to southern Maine will close from Oct. 29 to Nov. 11.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald
October 20, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
The Atlantic Herring Management Area 1A sub-annual catch limit is being increased from 31,115 mt to 32,115 mt for the period of October 24-December 31, 2017. This is due to an underharvest of the New Brunswick weir fishery.
As stated in the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan, if the New Brunswick, Canada weir fishery herring catch through October 1 is less than 4,000 mt, then 1,000 mt will be subtracted from the management uncertainty buffer and allocated to the annual catch limit (ACL) and Area 1A sub-ACL.
Based on the best available information, the New Brunswick weir fishery landed 1,724 mt through October 1, 2017.
On October 24, NOAA Fisheries will allocate 1,000 mt of herring to the Area 1A sub-ACL, increasing the fishing year 2017 (Jan 1-Dec 31, 2017) Area 1A sub-ACL from 31,115 mt to 32,115 mt, and increasing the stockwide ACL from 101,656 mt to 102,656 mt.
Check the current status of the Atlantic herring catch.
For more details, read the notice as filed in the Federal Register, and the permit holder bulletin on our website.
Questions? Contact Daniel Luers, Fishery Management Specialist, 978-282-8457, Fax 978-281-9135.
In trying to untangle a herring crash from the aftermath of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, scientists in Prince William Sound are revealing just how resilient – and unpredictable – marine ecosystems can be.
October 13, 2017 — ON A COLD day in June, Scott Pegau leans toward the passenger window of a Cessna floatplane and peers out at the teal waters of Prince William Sound. The glacier-rimmed pocket of seawater on the southern coast of Alaska is protected from the open ocean by a string of rugged islands. It is both moody and alluring. Clouds dally on the snowy peaks and fray against the forested hillsides. The sea is flat and frigid, except for a single row of waves lapping at the rocky shore.
Pegau aims his gaze at the shallow waters behind the breakers. After a few minutes of searching, above a deep bay on one of the outer islands, he finally spots what he’s looking for: a school of juvenile herring. Pegau can distinguish them from other schooling species by the unique way they sparkle – an effect produced by sunlight playing off their silver flanks as the fish bank and roll. Try as I might, I can’t make out any twinkling, just the inky splotch of a few tons of small fish swarming below the surface.
“Small H1,” Pegau says into the headset microphone, tucked snugly under his thick, gray mustache. That’s code for a small school of one-year-old herring. He enters the location on his computer; huddled in the back seat, I make a tick mark on the backup tally. It’s the first of dozens of schools we’ll see on our flight.
Pegau conducts these surveys every year in hopes of understanding what’s in store for the herring population in Prince William Sound. The fish mature and begin to join the spawning stock at the age of three, so the counts give scientists and managers a clue about how many adults may be coming up the pipeline. Researchers and fishers alike always hope the answer will be many. But every year for the past quarter century, they have been disappointed.
The herring population in Prince William Sound crashed in 1993, just four years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill released 11 million gallons of crude into these waters. The collapse put an end to an $8-million-dollar-a-year fishery, and left a hole in the middle of the marine food web. Scientists have spent years trying to understand if and how the spill played a role in the herring’s demise here, and the results have been hotly contested. All of the legal proceedings finally closed in 2015, with herring listed as an impacted species but with most herring fishers feeling poorly compensated.
Even more concerning is the fact that, unlike most species hit by the spill, the herring haven’t bounced back over the decades since. Populations of forage fish are known to boom and bust, so most scientists thought it was only a matter of time before they rebounded. But 25 years later, there’s still no sign of recovery on the horizon.
“There’s definitely a possibility that the ecosystem went through a tipping point,” says Pegau, who coordinates the herring program at the Prince William Sound Science Center, an independent research institute whose work is funded in part by money from the spill settlement. A host of factors, which scientists are still trying to untangle, could be to blame, from hungry whales to virulent disease. “There’s no one thing that’s keeping them down,” Pegau says. “I think pretty much everyone is convinced of that.”
October 6, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The August/September 2017 issue of ASMFC Fisheries Focus is now available at http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/59d79752FishFocusAugustSept2017.pdf.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Upcoming Meetings
page 2
From the Executive Director’s Desk
ASMFC Discusses Next Steps in State/Federal Management
page 3
Species Profile
Spot
page 4
Fishery Management Actions
American Lobster
Scup
page 7
Proposed Management Actions
Atlantic Menhaden
Cobia
page 9
Science Highlight
ASMFC Releases Stock Assessment Updates for Atlantic Menhaden and River Herring
page 11
ACCSP
ACCSP Submits Regional Recreational Implementation Plan to NOAA Fisheries MRIP
page 12
Comings & Goings
page 14
Employees of the Quarter Named
page 16
Past issues of Fisheries Focus can be found here – http://www.asmfc.org/search/%20/%20/Fishery-Focus.
October 6, 2017 — ARLINGTON, Va. — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
In May, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Atlantic Herring Section approved the continued use of the GSI30-based forecast system to predict when the population will be spawning and when spawning closures should be set based on the development of herring gonads (reproductive organs) in Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine). GSI stands for gonadosomatic index and in its simplest terms assesses the onset of spawning based on the ratio of the weight of a female herring’s ovaries to its body weight. This new system, which was successfully piloted in 2016, uses the observed rate of increase in GSI to predict when spawning will occur and when the fishery will be closed. This replaces an earlier system that simply closed the fishery when the observed GSI was above a threshold value.
Stakeholders can see the spawning forecast model in real time here: https://www.massmarinefisheries.net/herring/.
Atlantic herring spawn in the late summer or early fall of each year. The timing of this event can vary by several weeks, which necessitates sampling the population each year to determine when the spawning closure should occur. Once three samples have been collected that show a positive progression in gonadal development, a forecasted closure date can be determined by projecting forward when the population is likely to cross the spawning threshold. This forecasted closure date is continuously updated as new samples are acquired, and the closure is finally set within 5 days of the forecast date.
If not enough samples can be collected to forecast a closure date, a default closure date will go into effect. This date varies slightly by region:
Whether initiated by the forecast model or a default date, the spawning closure lasts four weeks. If more than 25% of sampled fish are still in spawning condition when the fishery is reopened, the fishery will reclose for another two weeks. For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, ISFMP Director, at tkerns@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
Read the release at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
September 27, 2017 — The New England Fishery Management Council yesterday discussed the list of potential acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rules outlined in Draft Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. The document contains nine new control rule alternatives plus the standard “no action.” After considerable debate and a review of the varying impacts of each option, the Council declined to pick a “preferred alternative.” Instead, the Council intends to wait to hear the full range of public comments during future public hearings before indicating any preferences. ABC control rules define how catch or fishing mortality changes with stock size. They are used in setting annual catch limits.
Amendment 8 is divided into two major components:
The Council focused on the ABC control rule aspect of the amendment during this ongoing meeting in Gloucester, MA. The localized depletion/user conflict alternatives will be discussed in detail during the Council’s December 5-7 meeting in Newport, RI. The Council is expected to approve the package of Draft Amendment 8 proposals during the December meeting if all of the necessary analyses are completed. While it’s still too early to tell, the Council tentatively is planning to schedule hearings in the spring of 2018.
Read the full release at the New England Fishery Management Council
September 27, 2017 — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Fishing regulators are shutting down a chunk of the New England coast to herring fishing for most of the month of October.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission says vessels in the Atlantic herring fishery cannot catch or possess the fish in the shuttered area from Oct. 1 to Oct. 28. The closed area stretches along a coastal area that runs from southern Maine to Cape Cod.
The fisheries commission says the decision is based on an analysis of samples of female herring in the area.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Greenwich Time
September 27, 2017 — 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 Commission’s 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.
Fifteen 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 1, 2017 extending through 11:59 p.m. on October 28, 2017. 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. For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, ISFMP Director, at 703.842.0740 or tkerns@asmfc.org.
A PDF version of the announcement can be found here –http://www.asmfc.org/files/AtlHerring/MA_NH_SpawningClosureSept2017.pdf
September 22, 2017 — 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 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.
Sampling in the Western Maine spawning area began on July 31, 2017; four samples of female herring were collected to evaluate spawning condition. Based on the analysis of the samples, the Western Maine spawning area will be closed starting at 12:00 a.m. on September 26, 2017 extending through 11:59 p.m. on October 24, 2017. Vessels in the directed Atlantic herring fishery cannot take, land or possess Atlantic herring caught within the Western Maine 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 Western Maine spawning area.
Western Maine spawning area includes all waters bounded by the following coordinates:
43° 30’ N Maine coast
43° 30’ N 68° 54.5’ W
43° 48’ N 68° 20’ W
North to Maine coast at 68° 20’ W
For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, ISFMP Director, at 703.842.0740 or tkerns@asmfc.org.
September 21, 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 met today to revise effort controls in the Area 1A Trimester 2 fishery as well as set effort controls for Trimester 3.
Trimester 2 Effort Controls
The Section revised the effort control measures for the 2017 Area 1A Trimester 2 (June 1 – September 30) fishery. The revised measures are underlined and become effective Sunday, September 17, 2017.
Days Out of the Fishery
Weekly Landing Limit
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.
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.
Landings will be monitored closely and the fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days when 92 percent of the trimester’s quota is reached.
Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A on no landing days.
Trimester 3 Effort Controls
Section members set Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) days out measures for Trimester 3 (October 1 – December 31). Section members, with input from industry, agreed to three consecutive landing days until 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be harvested or until further notice. Vessels may only land once every 24-hour period.
Trimester 3 landings will be closely monitored and the directed fishery will close when 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be reached. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A until the start of Trimester 3. For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, at 703.842.0740 or tkerns@asmfc.org.