Keeping Tight Tabs on Herring Hauls

by Laurie Schreiber

“The framework was only doing the bare minimum. Putting a bunch of exemptions into a rule like this is meaningless.” – Chris Weiner, ATBA. Fishermen's Voice photo

MYSTIC, Conn. – The issue of accounting for all catch harvested by the majority of the larger Atlantic herring limited-access vessels got a boost when the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) adopted requirements to better ensure accurate and verified catch weights in that fishery.

But discussion, leading up to NEFMC’s final decisions, was contentious. The measures under discussion in Framework 4, which follows on the heels of Amendment 5, are designed to improve catch monitoring and address bycatch issues.

In 2013, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) partially approved Amendment 5. The approved measures became effective March 17, 2014. Those measures include:

• Revised management provisions for permitting, dealer and vessel reporting, operations for carrier vessels and transfers at-sea, and vessel monitoring systems;

• Revised vessel requirements to improve at-sea sampling by observers;

• Management measures to minimize discarding of catch before it has been sampled by observers;

• Establishment of river herring monitoring/avoidance areas; and

• Expansion of sea sampling requirements on midwater trawl vessels fishing in year-round groundfish closed areas.

NMFS disapproved measures related to requirements for 100 percent observer coverage on limited access Category A and B herring vessels, industry-funded monitoring, dealer weighing provisions, and measures to address net slippage.

In Framework 4, NEFMC tackled dealer weighing and net slippage. The goal, according to NEFMC documents, was to improve the accurate and timely records of catch of all species caught by the herring fishery; to develop a program providing catch and bycatch information that would foster support by industry and others; to design a program for adaptive management; and to determine if at-sea sampling provides bycatch estimates similar to dockside monitoring.

Dealer weighing/reporting alternatives included a variety of methods to standardize measurements of fish holds, containers, and vehicles used to hold and transport herring. There were proposals to require vessel operators to validate information reported by dealers, to submit vessel and dealer reports within 24 hours of a trip, and to empty fish holds prior to leaving the dock.

Fishery management plan coordinator Lori Steele said the plan development team (PDT) questioned whether the alternatives would be useful. The issue that prompted calls for improved reporting was about bycatch, especially pertaining to river herring. But the alternatives don’t have a species-specific component; they just look at total catch.

“In general, the PDT felt these alternatives may address perceptions about reporting, but aren’t likely to improve accuracy of reporting,” Steele reported of the PDT’s deliberations.

Jeff Kaelin, a member of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council’s herring committee and a representative of Lund’s Fisheries in Cape May, N.J., said that, while there’s a need to educate the herring fleet about new requirements in Amendment 5, it’s not clear that Framework 4 will further the amendment’s goals.

“You have to ask why would the council persist in requiring fishermen to certify dealer data,” Kaelin said. “In our shop, we think that will slow down the process. I think you’ll get worse information, or get information more slowly, than otherwise. Historically, the dealer was the third party, and dealer information was used to tune landings.”

With regard to measures aimed at reducing “net slippage,” Amendment 5 defines slippage as unobserved catch, i.e., catch that is discarded prior to being observed, sorted, sampled, and/or brought on board the fishing vessel. Slippage can include the release of fish from a cod-end or seine prior to completion of pumping, or the release of an entire catch or bag while the catch is still in the water.

Slippage does not include operational discards, or at-sea discards that occur after catch is brought on board and sorted.

Observers have protocols to document fish that remain in the net, and to identify them as operational discards, before the net is released. Framework 4 was intended to clarify Amendment 5 slippage measures. Slippage is prohibited under most circumstances, and trips can be terminated if it occurs.

Exceptions are made with regard to safety, mechanical failure, and the presence of dogfish, which clog the vessel’s pump. Under these scenarios, NEFMC proposed to discourage slippage by imposing a “move-along” rule that would require vessels to steam to a different area if it occurred; the proposal was to require vessels to steam 15 miles from where the slippage event occurred. In addition, vessels would be required to report all slippage.

The objective was, in scenarios where slippage is currently allowed, to nevertheless provide a disincentive for the practice, and to provide disincentives of potential abuse of current allowances.

According to Steele, the PDT concluded the current suite of measures just implemented in Amendment 5 should significantly reduce slippage, and the PDT “struggled to identify the specific problem” that the Framework 4 alternatives were meant to address.

Enforcement of slippage measures is difficult unless the event is observed, said Steele.

The issue potentially places observers in a compliance-monitoring role, some speakers said.

Bill Karp, Northeast Science Center. “It makes it harder to view the role of the observer as being a scientific data collector, the more we ask them to take on these compliance/enforcement responsibilities.” Fishermen's Voice photo

“I have some hesitation and some discomfort about further pushing observers into a compliance-monitoring role,” said Northeast Fisheries Science Center director Bill Karp. “Yet I think it’s a reality of the world we live in. It makes it harder to view the role of the observer as being a scientific data collector, the more we ask them to take on these compliance/enforcement responsibilities. It’s one thing to simply make data available. It’s another when circumstance requires an affidavit taken from an observer, or an observer’s direct involvement in developing a case.”

The move-along measure prompted debate

“We shouldn’t be penalized for running into dogfish,” said Kaelin. “We shouldn’t be penalized for mechanical failures that we likely can repair on site. We’re equipped to fix these failures at sea. Why should we be penalized for breakdown? Why should we be penalized for dogfish? Why should we have to burn four dollars per gallon of fuel to steam somewhere in the ocean where there likely are no fish? We don’t necessarily have to go 15 miles to move away from dogfish. Give us some credibility.”

Likewise, Ryan Raber, with the fishing vessel Providian, said the move-along provision would effectively end a trip.

“We spend days and days trying to find a set of fish,” Raber said. “So when you say move 15 miles, it’s not moving on, it ends the trip. You can’t just move down the bank 15 miles and find the fish….We can’t be expected to spend all that fuel. Fifteen miles is 100 gallons. But it’s not that. It ‘s the 10,000 gallons we spent to find these fish.”

But father-and-son Steve and Chris Weiner, both Maine tuna fishermen and members of the American Bluefin Tuna Association, disagreed. The framework was only doing “the bare minimum,” said Chris Weiner.“Putting a bunch of exemptions into a rule like this is meaningless,” he said. “If you don’t think those exemptions are going to be used, then you don’t know human nature. You dump, you move….Moving 15 miles is not that big a deal. We cover 175 miles in our little 38-foot boat every day, and we pay the same amount of fuel as everybody else. That’s not too much to ask. All you have to do is show the observer the fish. If you don’t show the observer the fish, you move. It’s that simple. Does groundfish have a rule where you can dump? No.”

There was also considerable discussion as to whether “operational discards” would be observed onboard. This pertains to the small amount of fish remaining in the net when pumping operations are done.“If we’re prohibiting operational discards, you need to bring that catch onboard so it can be sampled,” said NEFMC member Tom Dempsey. “If there’s something in the net that you don’t bring aboard and it doesn’t meet the three exemption categories, it’s slipped catch.”

Steve Weiner said it’s a reasonable expectation that fishermen would be able to haul the small amount of fish left in the net, onboard the boat.

“You’ve got to close all the potential loopholes,” he said.

But Raber said observers can see the fish in the net.

“What we’re talking about is taking a bag of potato chips, eating the entire bag of potato chips, then we take it and shake it out and get every single crumb out of it,” said Raber. “And there’s the dust left in the bag. That’s the amount of fish we’re talking about it. Before we disconnect the pump, the observer comes to the rail, and he can see what’s in the bag. So now we have to disconnect the pump and get it back aboard safely, and there’s a certain amount of fish left in the bag – 200 pounds, 100 pounds, not much – that’s operational discard….I don’t know how I’m supposed to pull my bag aboard. They’ve already observed it. It doesn’t make sense.”

In the end, NEFMC adopted measures that would require that fish holds on the limited-access boats be empty before leaving the dock on any trip when declared into the fishery. The program also calls for third party catch verification at the first point of landing on limited-access vessel trips carrying a NMFS-approved observer.

To promote accuracy, these same boats would be required to certify the capacity of their fish holds and mark the tank at regular intervals to facilitate third-party catch verification. Each vessel also would need to possess a customized measuring stick onboard to estimate the total weight of fish in the hold. This would be done by an observer according to the protocol outlined in the Framework.

As a disincentive for vessels to slip catch, NEFMC adopted the 15-mile “move along” measure. The move-along rule would apply to slippage due to safety issues, mechanical failures, and encounters with dogfish schools.

It is expected measures will be implemented by Jan. 1, 2015.