June 12, 2019 — Lobster fishermen will likely have to contend with another deep cut to the availability of bait next year due to a Tuesday recommendation by a fishery management board.
Federal regulators have slashed the catch limits for Atlantic herring, which is an important source of bait for America’s lucrative lobster fishery, over the past year. The New England Fishery Management Council voted Tuesday to again reduce the catch limits, this time to a little more than 25 million pounds in 2020.
The cut would reduce the Atlantic herring catch to its lowest level in decades, and less than a quarter of the 2017 total. The reduction comes on the heels of an earlier cutback that reduced this year’s quota to less than 35 million pounds when the catch had been more than 200 million pounds just five years ago.
It remains to be seen how much of an impact the cut in bait supply will have on the lobster industry and consumers of lobster, but another reduction is “certainly not the news we want to hear,” said Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association.
“Maine lobstermen will continue to identify new bait sources to further diversify our bait supply and develop efficiencies in our bait use,” McCarron said.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Gloucester Daily Times