Setting an example for managers of most EU waters, the US government has closed a loophole for herring fishermen challenging the protection of groundfish spawning.
A bottom-line rule in the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976, the cornerstone in US fisheries management, is that all commercial fishing operations are to be monitored to prevent overfishing.
For many years, areas on the American east coast where groundfish such as cod and haddock spawn had been closed for the industrial herring fisheries. They were reopened for midwater trawlers in 1998 however, since the sector claimed they used gear that did not catch groundfish. The claim proved to be untrue, and many fishermen blamed that herring fishery as a significant contributor to the fragile status of the famous groundfish stocks off New England’s coast.
After significant groundfish bycatch had been documented in an important groundfish spawning area southeast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts in 2008, a new rule was instituted that said that all fish caught had to be brought onboard, for later inspections.
The new set of rules from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the fisheries management arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), did contain a loophole, however – industrial trawlers were allowed to dump the fish left in their nets after fish pumps used to bring most of the catch on board were turned off.
In December 2009, a lawsuit challenging the exception was filed by Earthjustice, a law firm specialising in environmental issues, on behalf of New England groundfish fishermen, who wanted to see the herring fisheries adhering to rules as strict at those they themselves were working under.
One year later NMFS has now finalised the regulation closing the loophole for “Closed Area 1”: from now on all fish in the nets stay onboard.
“We’re pleased NMFS took a hard look at this issue and saw the need for a better understanding of what is normally dumped by these boats,” said Stuart Tolley, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit “It’s extremely important that the entire catch be monitored.”
“This rule will make it so midwater trawlers fishing in Closed Area I are held to rigorous standards like those that groundfish fishermen face every day,” said Ben Martens, policy analyst for the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association. “We hope that NMFS will continue to see the importance of accounting for all catch and expand the rule throughout the herring fishery.”