Tuna Fishermen Asking U.S. Congress To Keep Eye On Herring Boats ff

Commercial fishermen from Massachusetts and Maine headed to Washington, D.C., yesterday to convince members of Congress that more observers are needed aboard midwater herring trawlers to monitor how many and what types of fish they catch.

They plan to ask Congress to allocate $1.5 million for observer coverage on the herring fleet in the 2008 federal budget, according to the Coalition for the Atlantic Herring Fishery’s Orderly, Informed and Responsible long-term development. The coalition is an alliance of fishermen, environmental groups and eco-tourism businesses.

Tuna fishermen, lobstermen and ground fishermen are concerned that midwater trawlers are undermining groundfish rebuilding efforts by exceeding catch limits for haddock and other species. They argue that increasing observer coverage would give regulators more information to better manage fish stocks. “With so many fish interacting with herring schools, it’s essential that there are federal observers onboard to quantify the amount of fish that’s being caught as bycatch in this fishery,” coalition Chairman Peter Baker said. “When you fish for tiny fish with huge nets, there’s too much at stake not to have observers onboard.”

Billie Schofield, general manager of Northern Pelagic Group, or NORPEL, would not comment about observer coverage on his trawlers. The New Bedford-based company, which processes herring and mackerel at its Fish Island plant, operates three midwater trawlers.

Owners of herring trawlers should welcome greater observer coverage because it would allow them to “come clean” if they do not have a bycatch problem, Mr. Baker said.

Bycatch is unwanted fish unintentionally caught by fishermen who are targeting a particular species.

”The vast majority of people who use the ocean think (trawlers) have a lot more bycatch than they claim they do,” he said.

Budget cuts have forced the National Marine Fisheries Service to reduce observer coverage on the midwater trawl fleet from more than 15 percent to less than 5 percent, according to the CHOIR coalition.

Teri Frady, spokeswoman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said the agency was appropriated less money in 2006 for groundfish observers, which reduced coverage to about 3 percent for the herring fleet.

”There is currently no funding specifically for observing the herring fishery in our appropriation,” she wrote in an e-mail.

When large trawlers tow nets through the middle of the water column to scoop up herring, they unintentionally catch haddock, tuna, marine mammals, sea birds and endangered turtles, said Roger Fleming, an attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation.

Sometimes herring is dumped overboard if the small, silvery fish is not of market value or if the vessel's fish hold is filled, Mr. Fleming added.

”Without observers, it's not all being accurately counted,” he said.

Increased observer coverage would help determine whether the trawlers’ bycatch “is affecting herring and other fish populations that are critical to a healthy ocean ecosystem and that also serve as the foundation for local coastal fishing communities,” according to a release from the foundation.

For the next three days, Mr. Fleming will join a group of about 11 tuna fishermen, ground fishermen and lobstermen at the U.S. Capitol, urging legislators to set aside funding in the 2008 budget to boost observer coverage of the herring fleet to 50 percent.

”The members of Congress and their staff respond to people that take time out of their lives to talk to them,” Mr. Baker said. “We have fishermen who are willing to spend four days of their lives in their Sunday best, talking to people about how important it is that the industrial fleet is monitored. The herring industry has high-paid lobbyists on the Hill all the time. This is a way to counter that.”

The fishermen plan to meet with the entire New England delegation, members of the appropriations committee and officials from the National Marine Fisheries Service.

”If tuna are in a school of herring when the pair trawls come by, they obviously catch the tuna with the herring,” said tuna fisherman Chris Weiner of Portland, Maine. “The feds need to be monitoring and observing what gets caught by these herring fishermen that isn’t herring.”

Some lobstermen are upset that the trawlers damage lobster gear when chasing herring in inshore waters.

”Last month, those big pair trawl ships came through and wiped out a bunch of our lobster gear,” Chatham lobsterman Rocky Chase said. “It costs us a fortune and really screwed up the end of our season.”