Pew-Led Alliance Calls for Protection of Herring Fishery to Avoid a Repeat of the Collapse of the 1970s

PORTLAND, Maine, June 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Herring Alliance, a newly-established coalition of conservation groups led by The Pew Charitable Trusts, backed New England’s traditional commercial and recreational fishermen today with the launch of a campaign for major reforms on how, when and where Atlantic herring are caught. Fishermen and conservationists alike consider herring to be “New England’s most important fish” for the role it plays in the marine food web, supporting everything from recreational and commercial fishing, to the lobster industry and even whale watching.

As the New England Fisheries Management Council was set to discuss new herring regulations at its three-day meeting in Portland, Maine, the Herring Alliance (http://www.herringalliance.org/) called upon council members to combat the destruction wreaked on inshore herring and their predators by industrial mid-water trawl ships. These vessels are 100 feet long and can hold up to one million pounds of fish that are caught by dragging small-mesh nets wider than a football field and several stories tall at high speeds.

“Herring are linchpins in New England’s marine food web. They play a critical ‘middleman’ role in the ocean ecosystem, transferring energy from one side of the food chain to the other,” said Joshua Reichert, managing director of the Pew Environment Group. “The fact that so many diverse interest groups are promoting science-based reforms to the herring fishery is testament to the importance of this fish to ocean life and all industries that depend upon it.”

The Herring Alliance — which includes the Conservation Law Foundation, Earthjustice, Greenpeace, National Environmental Trust, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Coalition for Marine Conservation, Oceana, The Ocean Conservancy, Environment Maine, U.S. PIRG and The Pew Charitable Trusts-wants to see science play a greater role in determining how to best regulate commercial herring fishing.

Working to support New England’s traditional fishing industry, the Herring Alliance aims to reform how industrial mid-water trawling is managed by limiting bycatch, improving monitoring, and basing allowable herring catches on the best available science to leave sufficient herring in the ecosystem as forage. Other national and local organizations are expected to join the group over the coming months.

The New England herring fishery has changed radically over the past decade from a local, small-scale fishery geared to providing bait for the lobster fishery, to an industrialized trawl fishery with a growing fleet of ships that operate 24 hours a day to provide food-grade herring for export. This change has taken place to the detriment of the health of New England’s fishing industry and the ecosystem. It has caused significant ecological problems due to inappropriately set fishing quotas and excessive bycatch that is currently occurring without proper monitoring.

“Anyone who likes to eat, or even fish, striped bass, tuna, haddock, or cod should care about herring. All those who like to watch whales, dolphins, and sea birds, or who depend upon tourists visiting these shores to do just that, should care about herring. Lobster fans should show allegiance to herring. People living or vacationing in New England’s traditional coastal and fishing communities should stand up for herring,” said Ray Kane, a commercial tuna fisherman from Chatham, MA. “This isn’t about being anti the herring fishery. It’s about fishing in such a way that is sustainable and respects the fragility of the ocean’s resources.”

The Herring Alliance is not opposed to the fishing of herring, but rather to the methods currently being employed. Mid-water trawling has been severely limited in various places around the world, such as our neighbors in Maritime Canada. Elsewhere in the United States it is strictly regulated and monitored. However, in the Gulf of Maine its destructive practices threaten to repeat history by putting herring stock under threat once again and with it a great number of other species. In the 1970s, a fleet of ships from the Soviet Union and other European countries all but wiped out the herring fishery here. The decline of herring was quickly followed by a precipitous decline of New England’s cod population.

“Huge ships dragging nets larger than football fields between them crisscross the sea off the New England coast, wiping out entire schools of herring and killing finfish and marine mammals that feed upon them,” said Peter Baker, Herring Alliance’s campaign manager from the Pew Environment Group. “It’s not just that this by-catch of tuna, striped bass, seals, dolphins and even whales threatens the survival of these sea creatures-which is bad enough. Worse still, this industrial fishing threatens the entire food web of the North Atlantic.”

Specifically, the Herring Alliance is urging the New England Fisheries Management Council and NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service to:

   — Establish ecosystem-based catch limits that leave sufficient herring in      the ecosystem as forage for other marine predators;   — Regulate herring trawling using buffer zones and time and area closures      that both minimize bycatch and avoid localized depletion to ensure      sufficient herring is present when and where it is most needed by other      predators; and   — Monitor and minimize bycatch of commercially and recreationally      important fish stocks — including juvenile or spawning Atlantic      herring and depleted river herring and groundfish — as well as whales,      seals, dolphins, and porpoises.    About the Pew Environment Group  

For the past two decades, The Pew Charitable Trusts has been a major force in both informing and promoting conservation policy in the United States and, in recent years, internationally. Pew’s Environment Group works to advance environmental policy by supporting top-level scientific research; building, assisting, and coordinating broad coalitions of organizations representing diverse constituencies concerned about environmental protection in the United States and abroad; and making strategic investments in strengthening the capacity of environmental groups to achieve shared policy goals. Our work is focused on reducing the scope and severity of three major global environmental problems:

   — dramatic changes to the Earth’s climate caused by the increasing      concentration of greenhouse gases in the planet’s atmosphere;   — the erosion of large wilderness ecosystems that contain a great part of      the world’s remaining biodiversity; and   — the destruction of the world’s marine environment, with a particular      emphasis on global fisheries.  

Pew Charitable Trusts

CONTACT: Peter Baker of Pew Charitable Trusts, +1-508-641-4064,pbaker@pewtrusts.org

Web site: http://www.herringalliance.org/