George’s Bank Bait Problem

by Sandra Dinsmore

“In June we were seeing landings pick up a little faster than we’d normally like to see for the 1A quota because we want to stretch that quota out throughout the summer.” – Jennie Bichrest, Purse Line Bait, Sebasco Estates, Maine. Margarie Mills photo

People in the lobster industry voiced concern when the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) cut herring fishing back to two days a week, with the possibility, in a couple of months, of shutting the fishery down altogether.

Jennie Bichrest, the owner of Purse Line Bait in Sebasco Estates, explained what led the DMR to cut back on fishing for herring in Area 1A, an inshore area which runs from shore to 40 miles out in the Gulf of Maine.

“We’ve come off a reasonably slow winter into a spring where the [George’s Bank] trawlers caught fish from May into the first of June,” said Bichrest. “Then the fish just disappeared.”

Bichrest said fish movement is typical. And often, she said, the fish filter back into Area 1A or 1B (Area 1B is offshore the Area 1A line).

But, interviewed on July 8, she said the herring had not shown up by then. She added that she had been six weeks without herring from George’s Bank. She said the trawlers usually make at least one trip there a week, sometimes two, depending on which end of George’s Bank they’re fishing. Adding to the problem, she said, “Nobody had a backlog.”

Bichrest said she had a bit of herring in her freezer, but said she sells more pogies than herring.

It’s difficult to estimate how much frozen bait is in inventory, she said. From one Canadian company, which said it had 15 loads (one load equals 40,000 pounds), she ordered seven loads. Communications with other frozen bait companies throughout the region indicate there’s little frozen bait available, she said.

The lack of bait is exacerbated this summer by a good start to the fishing year, Bichrest said. “Historically, things really don’t take off until July, and they started in June pretty good, so the usage is up over what it normally is for this time of year.”

DMR Deputy Commissioner Meredith Mendelson said the industry is experiencing “what we hope will be a temporary bait shortage, the result of the fact that the trawlers operating offshore on George’s Bank [Area 3] have landed very little from Area 3 thus far this season. Normally at this time of year, the bait supply comes from both Area 3 and Area 1A.

“Additionally, the trawlers that are normally operating offshore have been coming inshore to serve as carriers for the purse seine fleet, so we’re seeing additional capacity inshore and in June we were seeing landings pick up a little faster than we’d normally like to see for the 1A quota because we want to stretch that quota out throughout the summer.

“We wanted to slow down those landings a bit and our initial efforts to slow it down were not sufficient, so we took another action to limit both harvesting and landing to just one day of the week. But that then produced insufficient catch because there was some bad weather, and the fleet wasn’t able to get on the fish in Area 1A. As a result, the lobster fishery is experiencing a tight bait supply.”

The DMR published another emergency rule on July 9 to try to address the situation, she said, and to try to ensure the industry receives a steady stream of bait caught on a weekly basis, but also to limit the amount landed on a weekly basis so supply can be stretched out at least through August and September.

“Previously, there was no limit on how much vessels could land, only limits on when they could fish and land,” she said. “We will still be limiting the number of days they can fish and land going forward, but we are also going to limit harvester vessels to catching 15 trucks on a weekly basis. They can only land two days a week, and they can only fish three days per week.”

DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said that, if landings are not being accurately estimated in good faith, he will act “swiftly to significantly reduce effort by returning to a single fishing and landing day per week.”