Pair Trawlers Banned from Inshore GOM Waters - Striper Talk Striped Bass Fishing, Surfcasting, Boating

Offshore · 02-01-2006, 07:52 PM

Day before yesterday, the NE Fisheries Management Council banned pair- trawlers from fishing for any type Herring in the the Gulf of Maine Closed areas effective May 1st. The ban was done to protect Alwife/River Herring which often mix with Sea Herring inshore and are taken in the trawls. The areas are closed to groundfishing, but the Herring Trawlers had an exemption until now even though the commercial Cod fishermen claimed for years they were taking large hauls of Cod in their trawls and discarding them.

This action compliments the recent Alwife/River Herring run closures and ban on taking, possessing,transporting or selling Alwife/River Herring in Mass or Conn. RI, NH and Maine are expected to close their runs also before the season which begins May 1.

Raven · 02-01-2006, 08:15 PM

for the herring

PNG · 02-01-2006, 08:44 PM

WoooHooo thats big news

Diggin Jiggin · 02-01-2006, 10:34 PM

Any body have an idea of when the sea herring show up? I know in my local runs, by May 1'st there are years the run is almost over already. April seems likes its the peak near me. I wish the ban you mentioned took effect a month or 2 earlier.

Mr. Sandman · 02-02-2006, 08:21 AM

long overdue, hope it is not too little too late. Once again, poor management has got us to a complete shutdown.

If they want to rebuild herring stocks they will need to do more then just stop fishing for them. (althought this is a first step) How about some federal and State $ for rebuilding historical runs and improving the newer ones? How about relaxing all the overbearing permitting fees that are involved in re-building a run? How about putting some people on the re-building efforts that really know what they are doing and oversee this to compleation? They have been taking from this fishery for decades, it is about time they give something back.

PNG · 02-02-2006, 08:40 AM

Quote:

They have been taking from this fishery for decades, it is about time they give something back.

So true.
This fishery has gone from basically no regulation and almost ZERO oversight to being shut down. Hello, NMFS where are you, hello.
This is like when they were screaming the cod stocks collapsed * stop all fishing * when in reality their survey vessel was and had been towing a collapsed net catching nothing. This was discovered by a commercial fisherman.

Offshore · 03-24-2006, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Diggin Jiggin

Any body have an idea of when the sea herring show up? I know in my local runs, by May 1'st there are years the run is almost over already. April seems likes its the peak near me. I wish the ban you mentioned took effect a month or 2 earlier.

Sea (Atlantic) Herring do not spawn in coastal streams, but at sea. It is the River Herring and Alewife that spawn in your coastal streams. But, they (alewife) mix with sea herring near shore in spring-summer and that's why pair trawling has been banned inshore during that time.

Diggin Jiggin · 03-24-2006, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Offshore

Sea (Atlantic) Herring do not spawn in coastal streams, but at sea. It is the River Herring and Alewife that spawn in your coastal streams. But, they (alewife) mix with sea herring near shore in spring-summer and that's why pair trawling has been banned inshore during that time.

Bill, I know a little about the alewifes but nothing about sea herring, that's why I asked when they started to show. What I really wanted to know is where they are in relation to the alewifes now and over the next 5 weeks. Do they only mix after the alewifes spawn or do they travel together.

The first of the river herring are showing up now. You've still got 5 full weeks till that ban goes into effect. Where are the sea herring now in relation to the schools of alewifes that our making their journey to spawn. They are both offshore somewhere... I am hoping they are no where near each other, as the bulk of returning alewifes will be coming to spawn in the next 4 weeks, and you still have 5 weeks till that ban goes into effect.

Also as I understand it the alewife only spawn at a certain point in their life cycle. So where are the ones that aren't spawning this year, are they anywhere near those sea herring???