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Chatham-based Coalition Fights Destruction
Of Herring Fishery By Trawler Fleet
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The article below is a direct copy of
an article by Jennifer Sexton from the Cape Cod Chronicle
dated 06/21/07. |
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"The Chatham-based CHOIR Coalition (Coalition for Atlantic
Herring’s Orderly, Informed and Responsible Long Term
Development) has announced an initiative to monitor the
industrial mid-water trawl fleet fishing for Atlantic
herring to try to keep industrial mid-water trawlers out of
areas closed to groundfishing.
Over the last five years, CHOIR has pushed the National
Marine Fisheries Service to put federal observers on the
industrial mid-water herring trawl fleet to monitor what the
fleet catches. With no federal oversight to enforce
responsible stewardship of the herring and other marine life
by the huge trawlers, fishermen are stepping up to do the
monitoring themselves.
“These industrial ships are 150 feet long,” said former
CHOIR Chairman Peter Baker. “They hold a million pounds of
fish. They tow a net that’s as long as a football field and
as wide as a soccer pitch and as tall as the state house.
It’s a massive net with tiny two-inch mesh that catches
everything in its path, compared to the six-and-a-half-inch
mesh of groundfish nets. When a groundfish net is towed,
it’s towed at about three-and-a-half knots.”
Industrial trawlers operate with no real oversight, he said.
“The mid-water trawl fleet is basically monitored on the
honor system. These are the biggest ships that have fished
in New England since the foreign fleet wiped out the herring
stock in the ‘70s. It’s a really potentially destructive
fishery. It’s reckless and unacceptable to allow this
industrial fleet to operate without effective oversight.”
CHOIR is a coalition of commercial and recreational
fishermen and ecotourism companies that is New England’s
leading voice for conservation and accountability in the
Atlantic herring fishery. Atlantic herring form the basis of
the ocean food chain, and are therefore an essential element
to the marine ecosystem. Fishermen know that if food sources
are eliminated, there is little hope for the long-term
health of other fish stocks.
The five groups that originally formed CHOIR were the
Chatham-based Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s
Association, the East Coast Tuna Association, the General
Category Tuna Association, the North Shore Community Tuna
Association, and the Recreational Fishing Alliance. It’s a
unique industry coalition in that commercial and
recreational fishermen are working together, an unusual
alliance in the world of fisheries. The group operates out
of the Hook Fishermen’s Association North Chatham offices.
Herring are arguably the most important fish in the ocean.
Nearly all commercially and recreationally important fish
stocks rely on herring as a key component of their diet, and
the New England lobster industry depends on a healthy
herring resource for its primary source of bait. With no
effective monitoring system in place, there is widespread
concern in both the commercial and recreational fishing
industries that the industrial fleet underreports how much
herring they catch. The CHOIR Coalition is leading the fight
for an accountable Atlantic herring fishery that provides
forage for predators, an adequate bait supply for
lobstermen, and protection of groundfish in closed areas.
The initiative will include surveillance from the water and
the air. Planes and boats with camera crews will film the
giant vessels as they operate. In addition to monitoring the
fleet from the air and water, CHOIR has set up a webpage (www.choircoalition.org/sightings/report.php)
and toll-free number – 1-866-678-BAIT (2248) --- for
fishermen to report sightings of mid-water trawl activity on
the water.
“It’s important for general readers to understand that this
fleet of mid-water trawlers is an industrial scale fishery.
These are not traditional New England fishermen,” said
Baker. “These are big ships. The funding for them comes from
elsewhere. These aren’t New England based companies that are
doing this, in general. In fact, they’re jeopardizing the
resource base that all of our traditional commercial and
recreational fisheries depend on.
“It’s gotten so extreme that fishermen are stepping up,
taking their boats out and taking their cameras out and
trying to watch these guys themselves, because the feds
won’t do it. The reason we’re doing this is to show the feds
how severe the problem is and how seriously we take it— what
a threat it is to the livelihood of the traditional
fisherman in New England, so that they can live up to their
responsibility of monitoring the fishery and holding it
accountable for catch and bycatch.”
Bycatch, the accidental netting and subsequent wasteful
discarding of non-targeted species by these mid-water
trawlers, is of enormous concern to CHOIR. Although the
volunteer observers have yet to capture photographic
evidence of enormous bycatch events or bycatches involving
marine mammals, the potential is clearly present for tragic,
large-scale waste of unintended marine life including
haddock, cod, striped bass, tuna, pilot whales, dolphins,
and the many other species which prey on Atlantic herring
and are therefore very likely to be found in close proximity
to them. Photographs on the CHOIR Coalition’s website
clearly show the huge ships towing their nets directly
through groups of pilot whales and very close to dolphins,
humpback whales, and tuna fishing boats.
“If we’re serious about rebuilding fish stocks here in New
England, then the first step is holding the industrial
herring fleet accountable for what they do in the ocean,”
said Baker.
In sharp contrast, at the core of the North Pacific Fishery
Management Council monitoring system is a comprehensive,
industry-funded, on-board observer program, coupled with
requirements for total weight measurement of most fish
harvested. Except for small vessels less than 60 feet and
halibut vessels, all vessels fishing for groundfish in
federal waters are required to carry observers, at their own
expense, for at least a portion of their fishing time. The
largest vessels, those over 125 feet, are generally required
to carry observers all of the time, with multiple observers
required on catcher/processors and in certain fisheries.
“Unfortunately, New England has become the new hot spot for
these industrial trawlers because we don’t have enough
regulations in place to hold them accountable, and they
thrive in a situation where there’s no accountability,” said
Baker. “It’s built up very quickly, and no one’s watching.
In 1996 we had got our first mid-water trawler. By 2000
there were 13 of them. Now there are over 30, and they’re
getting bigger and bigger. There’s a huge consensus within
the commercial and recreational fishing communities that
there are severe problems with their fishing style and what
they do. But actually proving it without observers on the
boats is problematic.”
Baker was chairman of CHOIR for three years and has recently
transitioned from working for the Hook Association to being
campaign director for the Pew Environmental Group. He is
currently in Washington, D.C. along with a group of local
fishermen asking Congress to allocate $1.5 million for
fiscal year 2008 to put observers on the industrial Atlantic
herring fleet.
“It’s gotten to the point where you have to take matters
into your own hands and do some of it yourself, from our
point of view,” said Baker. “I think there’s a lot for
support for what we want to do here. We certainly have a lot
of support from the New England delegation. I’m quite
optimistic.”" |
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© Offshore Pursuits LLC 2007 |
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