11-11-2007, 11:34 AM
Fishermen, environmentalists call for more herring regulations
Associated Press
November 5, 2007
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Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback Text size: BOSTON - The nets are half a football field long, three-stories high and pulled between two huge trawlers. The tiny Atlantic herring is their target, and they pull up tons at time, much of which lands in lobster traps as bait or pickling jars as food.
But environmentalists and other fishermen say the trawlers are also doing serious ecological damage. Beside depleting stocks of herring, which are important because they're eaten by everything from birds to whales, they also accuse the trawlers of killing threatened groundfish species and decimating river herring populations.
Regulators will decide whether to devise tougher herring restrictions at a meeting of the the New England Fishery Management Council, beginning Tuesday in Newport, R.I.
The meeting comes amid heavy lobbying by groups who say the herring trawlers have been allowed to run amok.
"The government gave them this free hand with no restrictions. ... It's been too much for too long," said Ray Kane, a former tuna fisherman from Chatham who's part of the CHOIR Coalition, an industry and environmental group formed to protect Atlantic herring.
But herring fishermen counter that the herring population is abundant. They say though environmentalists have demonized the large trawlers, evidence is thin that the ships are doing the widespread ecological damage opponents claim.
In addition, regulators just enacted new restrictions in June, including banning herring trawlers from Gulf of Maine coastal waters. It's too soon for more restrictions, said Mary Beth Tooley of the East Coast Pelagic Association, which represents the herring industry.
"First, see if what's in place works," she said.
New England has seen centuries of fishing for herring, a small fish that fishermen prefer to catch when they're about 10 to 12 inches long. But the population crashed in the 1970s after heavy fishing by foreign fleets. The stocks recovered after the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act passed in 1976 and kicked foreign vessels out of New England waters.
The most recent stock assessment in 2005 estimated about 1 million metric tons of Atlantic herring, which is nearly twice the amount at which herring would be considered overfished, said Lori Steele, a herring expert who works for the fishery council.
There's a market for the herring as food, but about 70 percent of the New England catch goes to lobstermen to bait their traps.
New England's lobster catch was worth about $385 million in 2006, compared to the relatively paltry catch of about $23 million for the herring fleet, which has about 35 boats. But environmentalists and fishermen say the small fishery is doing big damage to more valuable species.
Many of herring boats are so-called "mid-water" trawlers, some of which are up to 160 feet long and pull their nets in pairs in the middle the water column where herring swim, rather than dragging them on the bottom like a groundfisherman.
The herring trawlers are allowed to fish in areas closed to boats that fish for cod, haddock and other groundfish, and that's not popular with some fishermen. Two commercial fishing groups in Maine have called for the trawlers to be banned from those areas, claiming their giant nets are snaring the cod and other groundfish and preventing those species from recovering.
And last week, a coalition of environmental groups called the Herring Alliance, which is part of the Pew Charitable Trust, blamed the trawlers for drastic declines in river herring, a key part of the food chain that mixes with Atlantic herring and can get caught by the trawlers. They said that unless the fishing slows, entire ecosystems could be threatened.
Peter Baker of the Herring Alliance is pushing the fishery council to extend a ban of the trawlers from Maine to inshore waters around Cape Cod to the islands. He also advocates for more federal observers aboard herring boats. They would document the unwanted catch that the boats pull up dead, called bycatch, and regulators could see how much the trawlers are harming river herring, groundfish or other species.
"They allowed mid-water trawling to come in with relatively little information about what their impacts are," Baker said. "We don't know what they're killing."
The idea that the mid-water trawlers are wiping out whatever is in its path is "ridiculous," Tooley said. The nets and the way the herring fishermen fish results in very little bycatch, she said, adding the limited data from observers on the boats has not revealed any major bycatch problems.
Tooley also said federal data show protected groundfish stocks have grown in size during the time the mid-water trawlers have been working New England waters.
Tooley sees herring fishermen as the target of a well-funded campaign that's short on facts, and pushing new rules that regulators recently decided not to enact.
"Do we have any new information in comparison to the last time we analyzed these measures?" Tooley said. "The answer is, 'No, we don't."'
. __________________
Fishermen will change the future
[signature]
Associated Press
November 5, 2007
Article tools
E-mail Share
Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback Text size: BOSTON - The nets are half a football field long, three-stories high and pulled between two huge trawlers. The tiny Atlantic herring is their target, and they pull up tons at time, much of which lands in lobster traps as bait or pickling jars as food.
But environmentalists and other fishermen say the trawlers are also doing serious ecological damage. Beside depleting stocks of herring, which are important because they're eaten by everything from birds to whales, they also accuse the trawlers of killing threatened groundfish species and decimating river herring populations.
Regulators will decide whether to devise tougher herring restrictions at a meeting of the the New England Fishery Management Council, beginning Tuesday in Newport, R.I.
The meeting comes amid heavy lobbying by groups who say the herring trawlers have been allowed to run amok.
"The government gave them this free hand with no restrictions. ... It's been too much for too long," said Ray Kane, a former tuna fisherman from Chatham who's part of the CHOIR Coalition, an industry and environmental group formed to protect Atlantic herring.
But herring fishermen counter that the herring population is abundant. They say though environmentalists have demonized the large trawlers, evidence is thin that the ships are doing the widespread ecological damage opponents claim.
In addition, regulators just enacted new restrictions in June, including banning herring trawlers from Gulf of Maine coastal waters. It's too soon for more restrictions, said Mary Beth Tooley of the East Coast Pelagic Association, which represents the herring industry.
"First, see if what's in place works," she said.
New England has seen centuries of fishing for herring, a small fish that fishermen prefer to catch when they're about 10 to 12 inches long. But the population crashed in the 1970s after heavy fishing by foreign fleets. The stocks recovered after the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act passed in 1976 and kicked foreign vessels out of New England waters.
The most recent stock assessment in 2005 estimated about 1 million metric tons of Atlantic herring, which is nearly twice the amount at which herring would be considered overfished, said Lori Steele, a herring expert who works for the fishery council.
There's a market for the herring as food, but about 70 percent of the New England catch goes to lobstermen to bait their traps.
New England's lobster catch was worth about $385 million in 2006, compared to the relatively paltry catch of about $23 million for the herring fleet, which has about 35 boats. But environmentalists and fishermen say the small fishery is doing big damage to more valuable species.
Many of herring boats are so-called "mid-water" trawlers, some of which are up to 160 feet long and pull their nets in pairs in the middle the water column where herring swim, rather than dragging them on the bottom like a groundfisherman.
The herring trawlers are allowed to fish in areas closed to boats that fish for cod, haddock and other groundfish, and that's not popular with some fishermen. Two commercial fishing groups in Maine have called for the trawlers to be banned from those areas, claiming their giant nets are snaring the cod and other groundfish and preventing those species from recovering.
And last week, a coalition of environmental groups called the Herring Alliance, which is part of the Pew Charitable Trust, blamed the trawlers for drastic declines in river herring, a key part of the food chain that mixes with Atlantic herring and can get caught by the trawlers. They said that unless the fishing slows, entire ecosystems could be threatened.
Peter Baker of the Herring Alliance is pushing the fishery council to extend a ban of the trawlers from Maine to inshore waters around Cape Cod to the islands. He also advocates for more federal observers aboard herring boats. They would document the unwanted catch that the boats pull up dead, called bycatch, and regulators could see how much the trawlers are harming river herring, groundfish or other species.
"They allowed mid-water trawling to come in with relatively little information about what their impacts are," Baker said. "We don't know what they're killing."
The idea that the mid-water trawlers are wiping out whatever is in its path is "ridiculous," Tooley said. The nets and the way the herring fishermen fish results in very little bycatch, she said, adding the limited data from observers on the boats has not revealed any major bycatch problems.
Tooley also said federal data show protected groundfish stocks have grown in size during the time the mid-water trawlers have been working New England waters.
Tooley sees herring fishermen as the target of a well-funded campaign that's short on facts, and pushing new rules that regulators recently decided not to enact.
"Do we have any new information in comparison to the last time we analyzed these measures?" Tooley said. "The answer is, 'No, we don't."'
. __________________
Fishermen will change the future
[signature]