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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 32 Number 7
March 2005
NMFS proposes lower 2005 herring specs
GLOUCESTER, MA – In a significant deviation from the New England Fishery Management Council’s recommendation, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has proposed 2005 specifications for the Atlantic herring fishery that would reduce the total allowable catch (TAC) for Areas 2 and 3.
The New England council had recommended a TAC of 50,000 metric tons (mt) for Area 2 and 60,000 mt for Area 3, which covers Georges Bank. NMFS is proposing to set those TACs at 30,000 mt – with no reserve – and 50,000 mt respectively.
However, the fisheries service said it could use “in-season adjustments” to increase the TACs and other specifications should the herring fishery expand “more than anticipated.”
The proposed numbers were published in the Federal Register on Jan. 31 with a comment period that ran through March 2. The fishing year began on Jan. 1.
NMFS said it supported the council’s recommendation to maintain the specifications through the 2006 fishing year “unless stock and fishery conditions change substantially.”
NMFS did not propose any changes for Areas 1A or 1B. The proposed allocation for Area 1A, which covers the inshore Gulf of Maine, is 60,000 mt, with landings from January through May capped at 6,000 mt. For Area 1B, the proposed TAC is 10,000 mt.
Differences
The New England council, which developed its recommendations in July, had proposed setting the allowable biological catch (ABC) specification for the herring fishery at 220,000 mt.
NMFS agreed, saying the number was “consistent with the maximum sustainable yield (MSY) proxy” being proposed for Amendment 1 to the herring plan, which is under development. The proxy is intended to be a “temporary and precautionary placeholder” for MSY until the next stock assessment, said NMFS.
But the agency disagreed with the council’s recommendations on four other counts:
• Optimum yield (OY) and domestic annual harvest (DAH) – The council recommended 180,000 mt for each specification and NMFS is proposing 150,000 mt for each;
• Domestic annual processing (DAP) – The council recommended 176,000 mt and NMFS is proposing 146,000 mt; and
• US at-sea processing (USAP) – The council recommended zero and NMFS is proposing 20,000 mt to be harvested from Areas 2 and 3 only.
NMFS’s reasoning
Regarding its decision to reduce OY, NMFS said the specification must be less than or equal to ABC, minus the expected Canadian catch. NMFS deducted 20,000 mt to account for the New Brunswick weir fishery and 10,000 mt for the Canadian fishery on Georges Bank.
However, the herring plan allows OY to be further reduced to account for “relevant economic, social, and ecological factors. And in this case, the herring plan development team recommended a lower ABC for “biological and ecological reasons.”
NMFS then adjusted the area-by-area TACs based on the lower OY of 150,000 mt.
According to the agency, the highest recent landing level achieved for Area 2 was 27,198 mt in 2000. The proposed 30,000 mt 2005 allocation would “allow the fishery to slightly exceed that level.”
The highest recent landing level recorded for Area 3 was 35,079 mt in 2001.
An allocation of 50,000 mt as proposed by NMFS “would allow the fishery to exceed that level by a considerable amount because this is the area most likely to see expanded harvests,” the agency said.
Foreign fishing
NMFS further stated that an OY higher than 150,000 mt might result in the need to establish a total allowable level of foreign fishing (TALFF).
The council recommended zero TALFF. To accept that recommendation, NMFS said it needed to set OY “at a level that can be fully harvested by the domestic fleet, thereby precluding the specification of a TALFF.”
Zero TALFF “will assist the US Atlantic herring industry to expand and will yield positive social and economic benefits to US harvesters and processors,” said NMFS.
Domestic harvesting
On the DAH end, NMFS said it believed the council’s 180,000 mt recommendation was too high for a number of reasons.
According to the agency, the highest level of total herring landings achieved by industry was 121,332 mt in 2001.
NMFS said a 150,000 mt DAH “would allow a 23 percent increase in landings as compared to 2001 and would, therefore, better reflect fishery performance in recent years while at the same time giving the fishery an opportunity to expand.”
Adjustments possible
Although NMFS proposed lower specifications than those recommended by the council, the agency said the numbers for OY, DAH, DAP, and area-by-area TACs could be modified if the fishery exceeds expectations in 2005 or 2006.
However, the numbers couldn’t go above the ones originally recommended and analyzed by the council.
In a Feb. 10 letter to NMFS Northeast Regional Administrator Pat Kurkul, council Chairman Frank Blount encouraged the agency to give the industry more quota if and when it needs it.
“Since the rationale provided by NMFS for the proposed specifications relates primarily to the need to better align the specifications with recent fishery performance and not to biological or resource concerns, the council supports the use of the in-season adjustment ... to increase specifications ... should performance in the fishery increase to levels that warrant such action,” he said.
Blount also urged NMFS to monitor the situation closely.
“It will be important to take appropriate action in a timely manner to avoid any negative socio-economic impacts from closing the fishery early, particularly if biological/resource conditions do not necessitate a closure,” he said.
At-sea processing
On a final note, NMFS supported the council’s recommendation to set the joint venture processing (JVP) specification at zero, saying it was “certainly possible, given the capacity of the current harvesting fleet” and the expansion of marketing efforts, that processors will use the entire DAP for the fishery, negating the need for JVP operations with foreign vessels.
However, NMFS did not support the council’s recommendation to set the US at-sea processing (USAP) specification at zero.
The council argued that current shoreside capacity was sufficient to process US landings, but NMFS rejected the council’s rationale as “insufficient because it would favor one segment of the US processing sector over another without any justifiable reasons based on conservation objectives.”
NMFS noted that large amounts of TAC in Areas 2 and 3 where USAP was authorized in previous years had not been taken.
“USAP could provide an additional outlet for harvesters and, therefore, increase the benefits to the US industry,” the agency said.
When the council debated the specifications last summer, one company expressed interest in using a USAP allocation. Given the circumstances, NMFS has proposed setting the USAP specification at 20,000 mt.
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