June 22, 2012 — Plan aimed at reducing bycatch
River herring will get more protection from becoming bycatch at sea, with plans for federal observer coverage on all trips by big mid-water mackerel and herring trawlers — and potentially closing off areas when alewives and blueback herring are swimming offshore.
Environmental activists like the Herring Alliance scored a big win last week with the decision to count river herring and shad as “stocks in the fishery” with the squid-mackerel-butterfish plan managed by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council.
That means the quasi-government board must start accounting for accidental captures of river fish, when they range offshore mixed with schools of Atlantic herring, mackerel and squid. It’s an approach that environmental groups and recreational allies tried unsuccessfully with the New England Fishery Management Council that sets rules for the Atlantic herring fishery, another target of conservation groups who contend too many river herring are taken by offshore trawlers.
River herring populations dropped all along the East Coast after decades of pollution, habitat loss and heavy offshore fishing by U.S. and foreign boats, according to the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Even as river waters get cleaned up, herring numbers can’t rebound. That’s focused attention on fish that get caught up in the late winter-early spring small mesh commercial trawling.
“The river herring stock assessment was released a few months ago…It says all the sources of mortality are too high,” said Kristin Cevoli of the Herring Alliance.
Planning initiated by the Mid-Atlantic council will set different observer coverage levels of 25 percent and 50 percent of trips for commercial net boats. “The council wanted to take in the economics of smaller vessels,” Cevoli said.