New Herring Rules Aim to Even the Playing Field
by Laurie Schreiber
Doug Grout, New Hampshire Dept. Marine Fisheries. “We should definitely give the state of Maine great credit for the rapid and quick responses they made to be more conservative than what was provided for in the plan. It’s important that we start at least considering trying to codify some of these in our ASFMC process so that we can try and make sure that there’s a supply of bait coming out of 1A.” Fishermen’s Voice photo
BAR HARBOR—At its Oct. 27 meeting, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Atlantic Herring Section initiated Addendum 1 to Amendment 3 of its interstate management plan to improve performance in the Area 1A fishery.
Area 1A is inshore Gulf of Maine.
According to the ASMFC, the purpose of the addendum is to develop additional management alternatives for the days-out program. It is in response to the accelerated pace of Area 1A Trimester 2 (June through September) landings in recent years and the increasingly dynamic nature of days out measures to control Trimester 2 effort that have varied across states.
The days-out program is intended to slow the rate of Area 1A catch so the seasonal quota can be distributed throughout each trimester. Currently, the program is specific to landing day restrictions.
“The increase in the number of larger carrier vessels in the area has rendered days out less effective in controlling effort because vessels can transfer catch to large carrier vessels at-sea, allowing harvesters additional days of fishing beyond the days that are open to landings,” according to the ASFMC.
In 2016, Maine’s Department of Marine Resources (DMR) implemented a series of emergency rules that were more restrictive than ASFMC measures in an attempt to extend the Trimester 2 quota into September. Those rules included a weekly landing limit, restricted landing and fishing days, as well as at sea transfer restrictions. DMR’s measures only applied to vessels landing in Maine. New Hampshire and Massachusetts implemented one of the management measures—three consecutive landing days.
The draft addendum explores these measures and potentially others that could be applied in Area 1A for Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts.
At the section’s meeting, fishermen and others said they’re seeing a lot of fishing activity in Area 1A.
“They say more boats are going to come for next year,” said Shawn Rocket, speaking on behalf of Glen Robins, owner of the herring carrier Western Sea. Rocket advocated for trying to control entry in to the fishery, perhaps by looking at a quota system based on historical participation.
Daniel Fill, a Maine fisherman who operates F/V Western Wave, said he been in the herring fishery since 1982, agreed with Rocket. “We need to address drastically Area 1A,” said Fill. “If we add more boats to the mix, things could get worse. There should be a limit on new entrants. If the boats haven’t utilized this fishery, they shouldn’t be able to just jump into it, because it will hurt people like me and the other boats that have weathered a low quota every year for all these years.” Fill said a new stock assessment is vital. “This year, there, I’ve never seen so many fish,” he said. “And it’s gotten more and more every year in the last eight years. This is an important issue. We ended up with a low quota and more boats got into it and we self-regulated at the Maine state level. We needed to do that” as more boats came into the fishery.
The issue of latent permits also needs to be addressed, said Fill. “They can theoretically just jump at any point and go,” he said. “I feel bad about historical participants, who will be hurt and have weathered out the low quotas, because once the assessment gets done and we do go up on quota, that’s is going to make a lot of other boats jump right into it….So this is going to have to be addressed very soon or we’re going to have a big mess coming up.”
“It’s only getting worse,” said Glenn Lawrence, who operates the herring carrier Double Eagle. “The more boats coming into 1A, quotas are being cut down per boat. Hopefully we can do something to make a future for us all.”
According to the ASMFC, the herring section sets annual specifications for Area 1A, dividing the area’s quota by trimester. In 2016, zero quota was available in the first third of the year. Fishermen could fish 72.8 percent of the quota in Trimester 2, during June through September, and 27.2 percent was available October through December. The days-out program is intended to slow the harvest so that fishing can be spread throughout the trimester, thus keeping the bait market supplied for the lobster fishery. At times, fishery manager make in-season reactionary adjustments. The fishery is closed when 92 percent of the seasonal period quota has been harvested.
Demand is primarily driven by lobstermen because herring is the preferred bait for lobster traps. Traditionally, Area 1A and Area 3 landings combined with inshore effort controls—landing day restrictions and seasonal quotas—have supplied fishermen and the bait market with adequate amounts of herring. But in 2015 and early in the 2016 fishing season, the Area 1A seasonal quota was harvested at an above-average rate and there were concerns about the availability of herring bait throughout the summer and early fall.
An example of a problem occurred in 2015. Areas 1A and offshore Area 3 were active June through August. Pressure on Area 1A increased in August as boats headed there from Area 3, likely due to concerns about exceeding the haddock catch cap there. The quota in Area 1A was filled by the end of August, which meant herring boats had to stop fishing there for the rest of the trimester.
The 2016 season had similar problems. The season started with limited herring supplies in the freezers. Landings were above average in Area 1A from the start of Trimester 2. It was projected that 1,300 metric tons (mt) would be landed there in June; instead, over 2,800 mt were landed. That led to emergency restrictions.
“Certainly there’s been a changing trend, and it’s provided a lot of challenges…to balance the days out,” said Terry Stockwell, representing the DMR. “For whatever reason, the trawl fleet in Area 3 has not been able to access the fish out there, and we are at the tipping point of addressing some capacity issues.
Terry Stockwell, Maine DMR. “For whatever reason, the trawl fleet in Area 3 has not been able to access the fish out there, and we are at the tipping point of addressing some capacity issues.” Fishermen’s Voice photo
Stockwell had recommendations, based on conversations with the industry, for a number of considerations for the addendum.
“Much of these proposed measures is built from Maine’s emergency rules to spread landings throughout the season and provide an equal playing field,” said Stockwell.
The measures included:
• Mandatory daily reporting. Two options: Category A, B and C permits and Category A and B permits.
• Modify the day out program such that the small-mesh bottom trawl fleet (SMBT) with C or D herring permits could have a different allocation of landings days and times that are separate from the purse seine and mid-water trawl fleet landing days.
• Modify the program to restrict fishing days for purse seiners and midwater trawlers, in addition to landing days. Two options: Category A, B and C permits and Category A and B permits.
• Modify the program to create a weekly landing limit (pounds or trucks) for purse seines and midwater trawls. Two options: Category A, B and C permits and Category A and B permits.
• Modify the program to restrict harvester vessels making at-sea transfer for purse seine and midwater trawls. Two options: All carrier vessels landing herring are limited to receiving at-sea transfers from one vessel per week and no transfer at sea.
• Modify the program to implement a tiered weekly landing limit for Category A and B permits.
• Modify the program to allow for a set-aside a percentage or value of the Area 1A sub-ACL for the SMBT.
• Modify the program to restrict a vessel from using a different gear type mid-season within Area 1A.
The addendum would also aim to clarify what it means for states to “agree” on the numbers of days out in the fishery—does it mean consensus or vote? And if states cannot agree, then what is the default landing day scenario?
“This is a suite of alternatives that have been discussed by industry,” said Stockwell. “The intent is to have something definitive in place for the 2017 fishing year. As our collective staffs work together to put meat on the bones of these measures, some will fall out, some will be perfected, and some will be amended. But we need additional tools in the toolbox for this coming year.”
Stockwell later told fishermen, “If we have additional seiners coming in next year, there will be less fish to divvy up and how we do it will be critical to you. We want to provide an even playing field and keep you guys working.”
Doug Grout, from the New Hampshire Dept. of Marine Fisheries, agreed.
“Clearly, this particular year we’ve just been through has been a great challenge,” said Grout. “We should definitely give the state of Maine great credit for the rapid and quick responses they made to be more conservative than what was provided for in the plan. It’s important that we start at least considering trying to codify some of these in our ASFMC process so that we can try and make sure that there’s a supply of bait coming out of 1A and the supply is spread out over the lobster fishing season.”
Grout said another issue of concern to New Hampshire, which also applies to some vessels in Maine and Massachusetts, is the situation of small-mesh bottom trawl vessels, which account for roughly 1 percent of the total harvest out of Area 1A.
“They’ve had to abide by these days out rules, which were really designed to try and constrain the directed fishery that’s responsible for 99 percent,” said Grout. “It’s been a detriment to the small-mesh bottom trawl vessels, which catch a small amount of herring. Having the ability to only go out a couple of days a week is just not making them viable. Most of them are already constrain by small-mesh bottom trawl restrictions in the groundfish fishery….So I’m hoping that, as part of this, we can move them off to the side and let them catch their 1 percent while we try and direct our efforts at constraining the major source of herring coming out of Area 1A.”
“Why is there not as much catch from Area 1B or Area 3?” asked Emerson Hasbrouck, from New York. “If there’s so such effort in 1A, why doesn’t it spill out?”
Bill Adler, from Massachusetts, explained the haddock bycatch cap in Area 3 has created a situation where herring landings there have been drastically reduced, causing a problem in 1A.
“Apparently, the way it works out there is, if they can find the herring, good. But if they exceed the haddock cap, the area is closed by the federal government to the herring fishery, even if the herring quota hasn’t been met,” said Adler. “Area 1B is a big area with a small quota. It was a year or two ago they caught some herring out there and that was the end of it.”
Adler asked for an explanation of the proposal to restrict a vessel from using a different gear type mid-season within Area 1A.
“It results from conversation I’ve had with the industry concerned about a vessel changing their gear type in the middle of the season and moving into Area 1A,” replied Stockwell. The measure would ask fishermen to declare which type of gear they were going to use in Area 1A before the start Trimester 2, so managers could get a handle on the type of activity going on.
Jeff Kaelin, with Lund’s Fisheries Inc. in Cape May, N.J., said the company has two midwater trawlers that carry fish in Trimester 2 and also try to harvest fish in Trimester 3 in the Gulf of Maine, while getting to Georges Bank when possible. “We’re trying to get flexibility around the haddock catch cap, so we can avoid the seven-month shutdown we had last year and the timid activity this fall where we stayed away from Georges Bank because there was so much haddock,” said Kaelin. Kaelin added that the company is investigating different technologies for the boats to see if there’s a way to distinguish haddock from other fish, to make it easier to avoid them.