F R O M T H E C R O W E ’ S N E S T
It’s Just Reality
On June 20, 2012 the New England Fisheries Management Council passed and sent to NMFS for approval a plan that will require observers on herring trawlers. The plan was the result of a five-year effort by a diverse group ranging from commercial fishermen to environmentalists.
Concern about the sustainability of the herring resource in the Gulf of Maine, a lynchpin species, began more than a decade before this recent effort. That was when industrial scale mid water herring trawlers came to the GOM in the mid 1990’s. The effects of this industrial scale fishing were soon being reported.
The decision made on June 20th is important because it brings official recognition to the issue. More important it will begin the process of data collection. Data that will put numbers where there was opinion.
Critics of the mid water trawlers, which catch an estimated 97% of the GOM herring, have focused on the way they fish and the amount of bycatch that is dumped overboard.
Another important point is a limit placed on the number of dumping or slippage events. Ten times per fishing trip the net’s contents can be dumped back in the water for lack of enough herring or too much bycatch. The speed of MWT tows means the contents are dead in the water. Which is why commercial fishermen have called this a dirty fishery.
What is more important is that after more than 15 years of controversy and a major five year organizing, fund raising and public awareness effort there are not more reality lights going on in the industry.
Beating up a resource facing the compound threats of ocean acidity, habitat degradation, threatened fish stocks, rising water temperatures, chemical pollution, and soaring demand for seafood, should not have to be debated for five years for these modest gains.
While the security of the ocean as an essential resource declines daily, it took fives years to wrench a modest concession from the greatest benefactors of our public resource.
The ocean we now live with and make our livings from cannot and will not survive as a provider if the suck every living thing out of it for the bottom line continues to dictate policy. It is just reality.