I have been doing some research over the last week or two on the Maryland herring run that striped bass chase in the Chesapeake tributaries each spring in the striped bass’s annual spawning run. Apparently there is some huge netting by commerical fishermen going on when the herring (yea I know, another forage fish in trouble. If you are not familiar with what forage fish do or why (photo information: The photo above was taken by Captain Eric Wallace of Coastal Fly Angler Guide Service on the edge of the Striped Bass flats last year in southern Maine. Trawling forage fish like this at the edge of an area striped bass and other fish live can not be good!) they are important here is a quick version. Forage fish are an important link in the marine food web because they transfer energy between primary and secondary producers, such as plankton, to top predators such as seabirds and larger fish like, you guessed it, striped bass, bluefish, drum, tuna etc…) are coming into the upper rivers to spawn. It has not been talked about a lot because these commerical interests want to keep it on the down low. There have been whispers about banning it in the halls of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources as well. I have been thinking that it is probably time to bring things to the public’s attention so we can actaully get the commerical netting closed in light of the fact that herring are becoming scarce. I’ll save more details for next week when I get more information.

What prompted this post today is that in yesterdays Shad piece I did, fisheries managers and others have been wondering why the shad population is and has been dropping so dramatically over the last few years. In the post I and others suggested that their might be a fishery for shad going on we do not know about or that they might be a victim of bycatch from another commerical fishery. Well, no sooner did I hit publish yesterday then did I receive the below press release and study by the Herring Alliance. It’s worth reading not only the press release below, but the study, it’s not a long read and worth your time. Long and short of it is that shad migrate up and down the coast, the herring fishery in the north is being hit hard, is it possible shad are winding up in the herring nets? Read below and see what you think.

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REPORT: INDUSTRIAL HERRING TRAWLERS THREATEN NEW ENGLAND’S OCEAN
New report exposes risk posed by mismanagement of large-scale fleet, proposes solutions

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - May 21, 2008
Portland, Maine — A report released today by the Herring Alliance* exposes a threat to New England’s coastal waters that has gone largely unnoticed in recent decades: the mismanagement of the commercial Atlantic herring industry.

The report, “Out of Balance: Industrial Fishing and the Threat to Our Ocean,” details the pivotal role Atlantic herring play in the region’s ecosystem and economy, and charts the growth of the industrial-scale herring fleet that jeopardizes the health of this key resource.

Atlantic herring form the cornerstone of New England’s marine ecosystem with whales, seabirds, striped bass and tuna depending on these fish for survival. Herring also made possible the development of the region’s commercial fishing industry, providing forage for cod, haddock and other groundfish, bait for lobstermen and sardines for human consumption.

Today, the herring resource supports commercial and recreational fisheries with a value of more than a billion dollars as well as an ecotourism sector that includes whale watching, birding and boating.

But intense commercial fishing threatens these fish and all that depend upon them. Since the mid-1990s, industrial-scale midwater trawlers - ships towing fine-mesh nets as wide as a football field and five stories tall - have relentlessly fished the region’s waters. Today these industrial ships, which came to New England in the mid 1990s, catch well over 150 million pounds of herring each year, accounting for more than 80 percent of the region’s total herring catch.

“This report documents just how far the regulation of the herring fleet is lagging behind the rapid changes this fishery has undergone,” said Peter Baker, director of the Herring Alliance. “In 1990, there were no mid-water trawlers fishing these waters and now they catch well over 150 million pounds of herring each year. Yet the fishery continues to be treated as the small-scale fleet it once was.”

The report finds that in spite of the potential for midwater trawlers to capture and kill nearly all forms of sea life in their path - ranging from haddock, seals, seabirds, tuna and severely depleted river herring - these industrial-scale ships are surprisingly under-monitored.

Among the report’s findings:

• Oversight of New England’s herring trawl fleet is insufficient. Government observers have historically monitored just three percent of the region’s trips, compared with Alaska, where observers are required onboard for 30 to 100 percent of fishing trips.
• Current rules include loopholes allowing herring trawlers to dump nets loaded with non-target species- a wasteful practice which obscures the true picture of what these trawls are netting.
• The Gulf of Maine is being overburdened by herring trawlers. Its inshore waters are home to just 18 percent of the region’s total herring population but are the source of 60 percent of the herring catch.
• National Marine Fisheries Service does not adequately take into account the changing needs of predators as depleted fish stocks rebuild, which could lead to shortage of forage for important marine species such as whales, seabirds, striped bass, tuna and cod.

“With little federal oversight and almost no accountability, mid-water trawlers have operated in the shadows for too long,” said Earthjustice attorney Roger Fleming, a contributor to today’s report. “The current rules undermine efforts to protect the New England fish stocks and preserve a livelihood for future generations of fishermen.”

The report recommends such common sense reforms as:

• Ending midwater trawling within 50 miles of shore and in areas closed to groundfishermen.
• Instituting a shore-based monitoring system with real-time catch and bycatch monitoring
• Requiring 100 percent observer coverage
• Banning at-sea dumping and requiring on-board sampling of all catch including discards
• Determining the needs of herring predators and establishing a set-aside of the resource for predators

“As we work to rebuild depleted populations of ocean predators such as tuna, haddock and cod, it is imperative that we ask fishery managers to put forage first by making conservation of prey for predators the primary objective of managing forage fisheries such as the Atlantic herring fishery,” said Pam Lyons Gromen, Executive Director of the National Coalition for Marine Conservation. “The New England Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission must account for the fact that herring is a keystone species in the New England ecosystem and of great importance, not simply as food fish but as fish food, too.”

The issue has galvanized New England’s fleet of small-scale fishermen, eco-tourists, and conservationists. Last fall, the New England Fisheries Management Council received more than 10,000 public comments calling for reform of the herring fishery. And represented by the nonprofit public interest law firm Earthjustice, Maine ground fishermen are currently in federal court challenging an illegal double standard which allows mid-water trawlers to fish in areas closed to nearly all other fishermen.

Today’s report comes as the New England Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Services is considering public input on its Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. The report is meant to educate and empower the public to participate in this input period, which runs through June 30, 2008. More information about the scoping process can be found at  http://www.nefmc.org/herring/index.html and at www.herringalliance.org.

A copy of today’s report is available at http://www.herringalliance.org/images/stories/herring_alliance_report_out_of_balance.pdf and a version complete with citations may also be downloaded from the Herring Alliance website at www.herringalliance.org.
CONTACTS:
Peter Baker, Herring Alliance, 508.641.4064
Roger Fleming, Earthjustice, 978.846.0612
Pam Lyons Gromen, National Coalition for Marine Conservation, 703.777.1961, or email Pam.

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