From the Town Landing: New England food fight

This column originally appeared in the January issue of National Fisherman.

For such a little fish, the herring is causing huge problems for the three major fishing industries in New England—the herring fishery, the lobster fishery and the groundfishery for cod and haddock. The reason, of course, is that herring are the glue that holds the marine ecosystem together in the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank—and everyone and everything wants to take the herring out for lunch.

The problem begins with the recent shocking pronouncement of the Science and Statistical Committee (SSC) of the New England Fishery Management Council, which has recommended that the acceptable biological catch (ABC) of herring be set no higher than 90,000 metric tons, a staggering reduction from the 2009 level of 194,000 metric tons (although the projection is that only 145,000 metric tons of herring will have been harvested in 2009). The decision was based on review of recent stock assessments, which revealed that herring stocks over the years have consistently overestimated herring biomass and underestimated fishing mortality. Despite the fact that the stock is not currently overfished and overfishing is not occurring, the Science and Statistical Committee felt it had no choice to reduce the ABC by a significant amount. As the herring fleet is well aware, the new and reduced ABC will be reduced by Canadian catches and research set-asides; what remains will be allocated among the four herring fishing areas (1A, 1B, 2 and 3).

The prospect of huge cuts in the total allowable catch (TAC) for 2010-12, of course, has the herring industry, which is composed of some 40 boats in the region from small purse seiners to large midwater trawlers, in shock. But for the 10,000 or so lobstermen in New England, such a large reduction in herring landings will also inevitably cause bait supply problems and an increase in bait prices at a time when lobster prices have collapsed to their lowest levels in several decades. For Maine lobstermen, who last year consumed 60,000 metric tons for lobster bait, a critical decision for the New England council centers on the allocation of the TAC among the four herring fishing areas. Herring fishing Area 1A is closest to shore and is also where the most reliable and inexpensive lobster bait is harvested, but is also where critically important spawning areas are located. Apart from the allocations among areas, there is also the matter of the timing of the harvest. Small-mesh boats fishing in Herring Management Area 1A argue that limits on the number of landing days per week will make it impossible to meet daily demand for lobster bait.

Then there is the matter of how reductions in the herring catch will affect the lawsuit and political wrangling over whether the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) should continue to permit midwater herring trawlers to fish in closed groundfish areas. Community-based groundfishermen, who have sued NMFS, believe efforts to enforce limits on groundfish bycatch by midwater trawlers in groundfish closed areas are too little, too late.

The fight over midwater trawling in closed groundfishing areas began in earnest when the Midcoast Fishermen’s Association filed suit in 2008 after the U.S. Secretary of Commerce denied a petition on behalf of the MFA and the Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance to exclude midwater trawlers from those closed areas, because juvenile cod and haddock ended up in bait supplies sold by the trawlers. Efforts to resolve the complaint out of court failed, and individual fishermen and associations have filed amicus briefs and letters on both sides of the lawsuit. The case is headed toward oral arguments sometime this fall.

In the meantime, the New England council has been chipping away at bringing the Herring Fishery Management Plan (FMP) into compliance with the new requirements in the Magnuson-Stevens Act for annual catch limits and accountability measures. As part of this effort, the council is addressing monitoring requirements for the midwater trawlers when they are operating in groundfish closed areas. The changes will be incorporated in amendments to the herring FMP; Amendment 4 has gone through the scoping process and is scheduled to go to public hearing in January or February 2010. So far, it is hard to say if refinement of the herring FMP is progress or not. Adoption of amendments is never a speedy process; new rules will not be in place for maybe two fishing seasons, and the amendment process is another arena for conflict between the entrenched groups on both sides of the herring issue—a real New England food fight, in other words.

In September, NMFS published a proposed rule regarding monitoring requirements for midwater trawlers operating in Groundfish Closed Area 1. The proposed rule requires 100 percent observer coverage and prohibits boats from dumping fish without first bringing them onboard for inspection. Exemptions to the no dumping provision allow captains to release fish from cod ends if safety is a consideration, the boat experiences mechanical failure, or the net is clogged with dogfish. The Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association argues that the exemptions provide too big a loophole and that, in any case, the rule won’t go into effect until after this year’s herring season. Their concern relates to the Hook Gear Haddock Special Access Program (SAP) in Closed Area 1. To establish and gain access to the SAP, they were required to prove they had no cod bycatch; as they see it, the midwater trawlers should have to do the same.

At the end of the day the Science and Statistical Committee of the New England council may accomplish more in the way of resolving the conflict than either lawsuits or plan amendments. After all, one of the goals of the revised Magnuson-Stevens Act is to empower each council’s SSC to establish limits that could not be easily overridden by political decisions among council members that at least in New England have led to lengthy, costly and often inconclusive legal proceedings.

Anne Hayden is an independent marine policy analyst based in Maine. Philip Conkling is publisher of Working Waterfront and president of the Island Institute.