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
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