Honest By Catch.com & MSBA Action Alert

The New England Fisheries Management Council is developing an Amendment or set of regulations to manage observers & by catch in the Atlantic Herring Fishery. This fishery primarily targets Sea Herring and is where the mid water trawl and pair trawl operations are known to catch large amounts of River Herring, Haddock, Scup, Shad, some Striped Bass and more. To learn more about the issue check out www.Honestbycatch.com

Currently, the Herring Oversight Committee is developing alternatives or options for the full council. At their December meeting only one set of alternatives was approved. The whole point of the process is for a range of alternatives to be analyzed for the full council. This step is also important because by the time the proposed regulations are released for public comment, it is too late to add new ideas because of the amount of evaluation that has to be done for an option to be legal.

The next meeting of the Herring Oversight Committee is tomorrow, January 28th at 9:30am at the Sheraton Providence Airport Hotel in RI. One of the items on the agenda for this meeting is for the committee to "review analysis of river herring bycatch in the atlantic herring industry". Links to the full agenda & meeting materials are posted here.

Agenda:http://www.nefmc.org/calendar/index.html

Materials:http://www.nefmc.org/calendar/index.html

Obviously, interested members of the public do not have the time to review all of the meeting materials. However you can still make a difference

The best way for you to make a difference is to attend the hearing because the more recreational fishermen and interested members of the public the more the regulators are able to stand up to industry pressure and write a good regulation. Just being in the room paying attention is important all by itself. If you then wish to speak at the times allowed you can and you do not have to sound like a scientist to do so. At the end of this section we have provided some basic ideas we feel should be included in the options.

Send E-mails & make calls now:
We urge all recreational fishers call and e-mail support of the CHOIR coalition proposal which can be read in the meeting materials link above. Key points to this proposal include:

Prohibit dumping (aka “slippage”) of a net while observers are on board.
Require observers on both vessels in a pair trawl.
Require 100 per cent observers in ground fish closed areas
Require a high level of observers at all times
Use time and area closures for locations known to have a history of by catch incidents

Please contact your state committee members today:

All States
Sally McGee
Environmental Defense
860/572-0190
email:smcgee@environmentaldefense.org

Rhode Island
Mark Gibson, Acting Chief
RI Division of Fish and Wildlife
401/783-8906
email: mark.gibson@dem.ri.gov

Massachusetts
David E. Pierce, Deputy Director
Division of Marine Fisheries
251 Causeway Street
Boston, MA 02114
617/626-1532/Fax:617/626-1509
email: david.pierce@state.ma.us

Maine
Terry Stockwell
ME Department of Marine Resources
21 State House Station
Augusta , ME 04333-0021
207/624-6562/Fax:207/624-6024
email: terry.stockwell@maine.gov

New Hampshire
Doug Grout, Chief, Marine Division
NH Fish and Game Department
225 Main Street
Durham, NH 03824
603/868-1096/Fax:603/868-3305
email: douglas.grout@wildlife.nh.gov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgAyZEwniao

By the way this effort will protect River Herring, Shad, Scup and much of our local forage base.

Done - sent.

Patrick - will you be at this?

Sent, hopefully their boxes are full and their ears are open.

Done - sent.

Patrick - will you be at this?

Yes JR I am going...thanks to all for participating...it is not over and conitued e-mails etc will help

Sent.

firstly, THANKS big time to Patrick!

the materials are very thourough,
and the CHOIR proposal, imho, is
sound and a huge step in the right direction.

in your esteemed opinion, Patrick,
what are the REAL chances of the Herring Industry
making the right choices when faced with the alternatives that
the CHOIR proposals entail??? ALL good ideas, that must be
applied to effect a change, eh??

this REALLY is a battle of increments and
winning small measures here, bigger measures
there,,,,,,,,,,,,thanks again for keeping us apprised
and for directing our voices so that our time and energies
can be spent most effectively when answering the CALL!!

email sent & WELL DONE, Pat!!
:claps: :claps: :claps:

Thanks for that, Patrick - :kewl:

I'm going to try to make it, I've got the day off - anyone else from the Island going?

Patrick -

Just went over the materials which I'm downloading and printing now -

Is there a form email that can be c & p'd with a signature - a link would be great, would like to get that off ASAP -

I thought it was going to be an evening meeting like the RIMFC's that I've been to in the past - the whole 9 to 5 may be tough tomorrow but I may be able to make a 1/2 day of it -

Got link...:huh:

Hmm...looks like I'm a member of the Day Late Club...

Gotta keep checking the post dates...so anyway, what's the feedback - :huh:

A report and a new call/e-mail campaign aimed at the ASMFC meeting next week will be announced on Frday evening

Update:

On Wednesday January 28th the NEFMC Herring Oversight Committee met to, among other things, craft recommendations for management alternatives for inclusion in Herring Amendment 4.

The Committee voted 7-1 to include the entire CHOIR proposal with Mary Beth Tooley from ME being the only no vote. The CHOIR proposal is the most effective from the perspective of protection of both forage and sport fish. The committee also voted to include the Industry proposal however this was definately a great step forward. The backbone of the CHOIR proposal is the idea of maximized retention (observes get to see ALL fish caught before being dumped), onboard electronic monitoring (cameras) and a strong
shoreside monitoring program.

The CHOIR Proposal alternative and three others will now be forwarded by the
Committee to the full Council, which will now need to officially accept all four
as alternatives. They will be discussing this at the upcoming Council meeting in
Portsmouth, NH, the week of February 9th.

The Honest ByCatch movement will be conducting an action alert aimed at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission river Herring Meetings going on next week and then another action alert aimed at the New England Fisheries Management Council Meeting mentioned above during the following week.

Watch this web site for these upcoming actions.

Could a moderator please un sticky this thread as the action alert is over.

thanks

Good start - thanks Patrick :cheers: