Governor Supports Monitoring Improvements in the Herring and Mackerel Fisheries By Signing the Energy and Environmental Bond Bill, Says Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association

    CHATHAM, Mass., Aug. 21 /EMWNews/ -- The Energy and

Environmental Bond Bill (H5054) has been signed into law by Governor Deval

Patrick and includes a provision to create a groundbreaking monitoring

program for landings in the herring and mackerel fisheries. The provision,

sponsored by State Representative Sarah Peake, and supported by Senator

Robert O'Leary and many other members of the general court, will provide

fisheries managers with critical tools they need to effectively manage the

herring and mackerel fisheries, tools that are currently unavailable in New

England despite their success in other U.S. fisheries.



    Section 2300-1708 of the Energy and Environmental Bond Bill authorizes

the Governor to create a rigorous, scientific, and modern shore-based

monitoring program for the herring and mackerel fleets based on successful

models from Alaska and other regions, and also authorizes him to

appropriate $750,000 to the Division of Marine Fisheries to administer the

program. It also provides for guidance from the Massachusetts Marine

Fisheries Advisory Commission, and will give fishery managers, for the

first time, accurate information on how much fish is being landed and its'

species composition.



    Herring and mackerel are targeted in New England by very large fishing

vessels that offload vast quantities of fish in a unique fashion - by

pumping it through large hoses directly into fish plants or trucks. Such

high-volume, high-throughput fisheries present unique monitoring challenges

and the new law will give managers, dealers and fishermen the help they

need to rise to those challenges, including special weighing techniques,

shore-based observers, and the flexibility to tailor the program to each

individual fishing businesses' needs.



    Such robust monitoring is particularly vital in the herring and

mackerel fisheries because of ongoing bycatch concerns that are difficult

to accurately measure under existing regulations. And the program is

particularly timely due to current concerns and state policies regarding

the bycatch of anadromous fish like river herring. These fish, including

blueback herring and alewives, are at historic low abundance. In fact they

are currently off-limits in Massachusetts with the exception of a tolerance

that includes the herring and mackerel vessels. The herring and mackerel

fisheries have been known to catch river herring and are considered as one

of the reasons for their decline.



    The tolerance is currently not enforceable: the state does not know how

much they actually catch because only a small percentage of vessels are

monitored. This leaves management guessing the extent of their impact on an

already declining stock.