For several years, there has been a lot of concern from recreational and commercial fishermen, as well as whale-watch operators and environmentalists, about the large quantities of herring that are being removed annually from near-shore Gulf of Maine waters by large, efficient midwater trawlers. Herring serve as critically important forage for groundfish, tuna, striped bass, bluefish, whales and other marine mammals, but in recent years, it appears that virtually entire schools of herring are being removed from specific areas (called "localized depletion"), resulting in lack of feed for these important predators. 

The New England Fishery Management Council has been crafting a new herring management plan for over a year now (known as Scallop Amendment 1), which would, among other things, ban midwater herring trawling in a region within 30 miles of the coast from Cape Cod to Canada (known as Herring Management Area 1A) from June 1st through September 30th annually. This would allow traditional fisheries for bluefin tuna and groundfish, as well as whale-watching, to be conducted during the summer months without the threat of localized herring depletion, which causes predators to move to other areas in search of food. However, the plan was not approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in time for the '06 season (and still has not as of early September) so the big trawlers have been pounding our coastal waters with their huge nets all summer.

Besides herring depletion, waste and bycatch have been serious concerns as well. A letter written to Dr. Bill Hogarth, the head of NMFS in Washington, DC, on July 20th by Rich Ruais, Executive Director of East Coast Tuna Association, sums up the problem. Rich wrote:
         
"I have confirmed through personal conversations with two tuna captains who have made direct observations of a massive dumping of dead herring, whale codfish, haddock and, at least one seal on the northern end of Jeffreys Ledge on July 19th, 2006, in the late afternoon.  In my conversations with the reporting captains, I insisted there be no embellishment to their description of the sighting of the dumped fish.
         
"The dead fish slick was seen to extend for at least one mile and was estimated to be a minimum of 100 yards across.  The captains reported the numbers of discarded cod and haddock visible was very substantial. Both captains reported seeing two midwater trawl vessels in the immediate area treading water.  Neither captain actually witnessed the dumping of the catch, so it is not definitively known if the two midwater boats seen were the offending vessels.  I have the name of the vessels seen in the immediate area. 
         
"One of the tuna captains used a shrimp basket to quickly collect two boxes (200 lbs.) of bait and several of the whale cod from the slick for personal use.  He reported the cod to be very fresh, so the dumping most likely occurred earlier that day.  Both captains reported they could not cross the slick for fear of clogging their engine cooling strainers due to the density of floating herring.  Tuna fishermen, including these two captains, have sighted two dead whales (one small humpback and one minke whale) in the same area, although one of the whales was in such poor shape it was obvious that it was in the water prior to this recent dumping.  
        
"I cannot convey to you the outrage and disgust of tuna and groundfish fishermen over this situation.  There is very little tuna fishing effort this summer because most of the General and Harpoon Category fishermen do not believe there is adequate forage in the Gulf of Maine to hold visiting giant bluefins.
          
"I am copying the State (Marine Fisheries) Directors on this note with the hope that some will try and investigate this recent dumping and do all in their power to prevent further incidents.  I have also asked East Coast Tuna Association fish dealers to provide free disposable cameras to the few boats trying to document additional dumping incidents.
          
"What can NMFS do to correct this waste and damage to the discrete coastal herring stock from continuing?  Recent NMFS trawl surveys are showing a 50 percent decline in coastal herring abundance, confirming our reports that herring in the Gulf of Maine are in trouble.  At a minimum, can NMFS redeploy observers to 100 percent of the midwater herring fleet attempting to fish in Area 1A? I hope NMFS will recognize the seriousness of this situation."
 
Since the time this letter was written, a NMFS observer who was aboard one of the herring trawlers, implicated with the incident, confirmed that there was indeed a "dump" of an estimated 10,000 pounds of herring on July 19th. According to Rich, the observer claimed she was "too high up on the boat" to see any groundfish or mammals in the net. Could it be that the operator of the trawler knew that he had cod and/or mammals in the bottom of the net, and thus chose to dump the remaining herring and bycatch rather than risk exposing it to the observer? 
 
There have been a number of credible reports this summer of similar herring dumping and bycatch incidents by midwater trawlers. RFA members are encouraged to contact Dr. Hogarth at (301) 713-2239; fax (301) 713-1940; email: bill.hogarth@noaa.gov. Tell him that Scallop Amendment 1, as submitted, needs to be approved and implemented as soon as possible, that 150-foot midwater herring trawlers have no place in the near-shore waters of the Gulf of Maine, and that these industrial-scale fish-extraction operations are far better suited to offshore waters where they will not impact small-boat commercial and recreational fishermen and whale watching. Above all, tell him we need a responsible herring fishery that will allow a good percentage of herring to remain in the sea as a forage base for a wide variety of fish and animals. That's the real message.  

For more information, contact Capt. Barry Gibson, New England Regional Director at 207-633-5929 or barrygibson6@aol.com.  

