October 4, 2024 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council took final action on fishing year 2025-2027 specifications for Atlantic herring when it met September 24-26, 2024 in Gloucester, Massachusetts. The Council also asked the Regional Administrator of NOAA Fisheries to use his existing authority to implement an in-season adjustment to reduce default 2025 specifications to the level recently recommended by the Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC).
The Council’s revised 2025 specifications, which are part of the new 2025-2027 package, are much lower than the default or backup 2025 specifications the Council developed in 2022 to cover the 2023-2025 fishing years. At the time, the Council knew it would need to update 2025 catch limits, but it included backups in a three-year package in case the next action was delayed.
BOTTOM LINE: The default 2025 annual catch limit (ACL) is 23,961 metric tons (mt). The revised 2025 ACL, which is based on the latest stock assessment, is 2,710 mt, marking an 89% reduction. For comparison, 2,710 mt equates to 14% of the 2024 ACL now in place.
The Council is deeply concerned about the magnitude of the needed adjustments and the inevitable social and economic impacts associated with the upcoming reductions in catch.
The revised ACL, if approved by NOAA Fisheries as expected, will result in the lowest catch limits in the history of the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. The new catch limits will not support a directed commercial fishery for Atlantic herring. Area-by-area sub-ACLs are shown in the table below.