September 21, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (Commission) Atlantic Herring Section Members from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts met today to revise effort controls in the Area 1A Trimester 2 fishery as well as set effort controls for Trimester 3.
Trimester 2 Effort Controls
The Section revised the effort control measures for the 2017 Area 1A Trimester 2 (June 1 – September 30) fishery. The revised measures are underlined and become effective Sunday, September 17, 2017.
Days Out of the Fishery
- Vessels with a herring Category A permit that have declared into the Trimester 2 Area 1A fishery may land herring seven (7) consecutive days a week. One landing per 24 hour period. Vessels are prohibited from landing or possessing herring caught from Area 1A during a day out of the fishery.
- Landing days in New Hampshire and Massachusetts begin on Monday of each week at 12:01 a.m.
- Landings days in Maine begin on Sunday of each week at 6:00 p.m.
- Small mesh bottom trawl vessels with a herring Category C or D permit that have declared into the Trimester 2 fishery may land herring seven (7) consecutive days a week.
Weekly Landing Limit
- Vessels with a herring Category A permit may harvest up to 1 million pounds (25 trucks) per harvester vessel, per week.
- 120,000 pounds out of the 1,000,000 pounds weekly limit can be transferred to a carrier vessel (see below).
At-Sea Transfer and Carrier Restrictions (no changes were made)
The following applies to harvester vessels with a herring Category A permit and carrier vessels landing herring caught in Area 1A to a Maine, New Hampshire or Massachusetts port.
- A harvester vessel can transfer herring at-sea to another catcher vessel.
- A harvester vessel is limited to making at-sea transfers to only one carrier vessel per week.
- Carrier vessels are limited to receiving at-sea transfers from one catcher vessel per week and can land once per 24 hour period. A carrier vessel may land up to 120,000 pounds (3 trucks) per week. The carrier limit of 3 trucks is not in addition to the harvester weekly landing
- Carrier vessel: a vessel with no gear on board capable of catching or processing fish. Harvester vessel: a vessel that is required to report the catch it has aboard as the harvesting vessel on the Federal Vessel Trip Report.
The initial Area 1A sub-annual catch limit (ACL) is 31,115 metric tons (mt) after adjusting for a carryover from 2015 and the research set-aside. The Section allocated 72.8% of the sub-ACL to Trimester 2 and 27.2% to Trimester 3. After incorporating the 295 mt fixed gear set-aside and the 8% buffer (Area 1A closes at 92% of the sub-ACL) the seasonal quotas are 20,625 mt for Trimester 2 and 7,706 mt for Trimester 3.
Landings will be monitored closely and the fishery will be adjusted to zero landing days when 92 percent of the trimester’s quota is reached.
Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A on no landing days.
Trimester 3 Effort Controls
Section members set Area 1A (inshore Gulf of Maine) days out measures for Trimester 3 (October 1 – December 31). Section members, with input from industry, agreed to three consecutive landing days until 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be harvested or until further notice. Vessels may only land once every 24-hour period.
- Beginning on October 1, 2017: Vessels in the State of Maine may land herring starting at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays up to 5:59 p.m. on Wednesday.
- Beginning on October 2, 2017: Vessels in the State of New Hampshire and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts may land herring starting at 12:00 a.m. on Mondays up to 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday.
Trimester 3 landings will be closely monitored and the directed fishery will close when 92% of the Area 1A sub-ACL is projected to be reached. Fishermen are prohibited from landing more than 2,000 pounds of Atlantic herring per trip from Area 1A until the start of Trimester 3. For more information, please contact Toni Kerns, at 703.842.0740 or tkerns@asmfc.org.