The prevailing sentiment at the 35th annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum is lobster fishermen are under constant attack, as evidenced by the latest federal government quota cut on catching herring, a catch used for lobster bait, and the final fish cannery closure in the U.S.
Sen. Olympia Snowe hosted a closed stakeholder’s meeting March 5 and heard loud and clear from members of the New England Fishery Management Council, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association and others, about the fear of losing the fishing industry altogether.
With Snowe was Coast Guard Admiral Robert Papp, the Commander of the Atlantic Area, and the Commandant-designate to replace Admiral Allen in May, pending Senate confirmation. Also with Snowe was the newly-appointed Administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Eric Schwaab.
To a person, the stakeholders implored Snowe to support the industry through science, not computer model scientific evidence concerning fishstock health and numbers.
“There needs to be critical investment in cooperative science and research” was the resounding opinion.
The Lobster Advisory Council believes there will be a profound negative impact on lobstering including bait shortages and bait price increases, due to the new herring catch quota.
The repercussion of the impending herring catch limits is already being felt.
Bumblebee Canning in Prospect Harbor is slated to close April 18. The former Stinson Seafood plant is the last sardine cannery in the U.S., and more than 128 people will lose their jobs.
Many believe the cannery closure is directly due to the upcoming federal herring fishing limits. To be imposed in 2010, 2011, and 2012, the herring quota will reduce the total allowable catch of Atlantic herring by 37 percent, and in other regions from Cape Cod to Canada, by as much as 50 percent.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is expected to put the new limits in place, reducing the catch from 145,000 metric tons per year, to 91,250 metric tons for the three years.
Along the Maine coast, the catch will be reduced from 45,000 metric tons to 22,000 metric tons.
Federal rules will also limit the number of fishing days for different sectors throughout the year, and the government will actually stop fishing once the yearly catch reaches 95 percent of the limit.
The announced catch limits has set off a political tug of war among fishermen, conservationists, the tuna industry, lobster industry, sports fishermen, and others.
The Maine Lobster Industry is particularly poised to be another casualty of the herring limits.
According to Maine Lobstermen’s Association president David Cousens, the amount of bait Maine lobstermen use every year far exceeds the new quota. Lobstermen will either have to switch to other bait like pogies (menhaden), or have bait trucked in from away at a high cost.
The higher bait costs hit an industry hard that has already been struggling with low lobster prices.
When discussing the situation with Snowe, the stakeholders acknowledged the New England Fishery Management Council and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission have voted to recommend the new fishing limits, based on submitted scientific analysis.
However, the stakeholders are skeptical of the analysis since computer models are used to predict the health of herring stocks, and have proved to be unreliable, leaving scientists actually unsure of how healthy the stocks really are.
The New England Fishery Management Council herring investigators believe scientists are then taking a cautious approach in stock health recommendations.
The solution, the stakeholders told Snowe, is funding.
Snowe promised to work hard to secure the funding for true data gathering, such as trawl surveys, and the Maine Lobster Association will push for a new assessment of the stocks as soon as possible.
The stakeholders recommend and support the health of the herring stocks be ascertained through gathering at-the-source data, and fishery management has to be based on improved and accurate science so stocks can be managed without jeopardizing the entire industry.
Snowe is a ranking member of the subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard, and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.
Statistics for this article come from: Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (www.asmfc.org), Downeast Lobstermen’s Association (www.downeastlobstermen.org), Commercial Fisheries News (www.fish-news.com), Fishermen’s Voice (www.fishermensvoice.com), Gulf of Maine Lobster Foundation (www.gomlf.org), Gulf of Maine Research Institute (www.gmri.org), Maine Lobstermen’s Association (www.mainelobstermen.org), Lobster Institute (www.lobsterinstitute.org), Maine Dept. of Marine Resources (www.maine.gov/dmr/bmp), National Fisherman (www.nationalfisherman.com), and NOAA (www.nefsc.noaa.gov/femad/fsb, or (www.nero.noaa.gov).
