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MEMBERS of the Sustainable Fisheries Coalition, a group of fishing vessel owners and affiliated businesses from Maine to New Jersey, are seeking a grant to support additional research into groundfish bycatch resulting from midwater trawling for herring.
The group, in conjunction with scientists from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute (GMRI), submitted a request for $93,813 from the Northeast Consortium, a federally-funded research programme involving the University of New Hampshire, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Maine and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
If funded, the study will result in enhanced observer coverage and bycatch analysis on at least 50% of all midwater trawl trips undertaken in and around the Western Gulf of Maine and Cash’s Ledge Closed Groundfish Areas in May of 2008.
“This study will help fisheries scientists, regulators and boat owners better understand the level of bycatch and the impact, if any, of midwater trawling on the groundfishery,” said Jeff Kaelin, a fisheries consultant based in Maine.
Midwater trawl vessels have recently come under fire by environmental groups and some members of other fisheries, because current regulations allow midwater trawlers to operate in areas closed to groundfishing. The closures are intended to ensure healthy spawning stocks of groundfish.
Kaelin said that midwater trawl equipment is designed to avoid taking significant numbers of groundfish, which is why herring fishermen are currently permitted to fish in these areas.
“Midwater trawl nets are fragile, and can’t withstand contact with the bottom,” he said. “Herring swim higher in the water column. Occasionally, groundfish will come up from the bottom, and midwater trawl nets sometimes catch them. The study will help determine if midwater trawling has a significant impact on the spawning groundfish stocks.”
A recent change in fisheries rules, requested by the herring fleet, requires midwater trawl boats to keep haddock bycatch. If only 0.2 percent of the total allowable catch for haddock in a given area is taken by the herring fleet, the herring fishery is shut down.
Kaelin said that the existing data indicates that groundfish bycatch is low.
The Northeast Consortium was created in 1999 to encourage and fund effective scientific research and monitoring projects in cooperation with fishermen. Additional information on the Consortium may be found at http://www.northeastconsortium.org.
More than a dozen midwater trawling vessels have committed to participating in the study, if funded.
Should fisheries be closed during breeding time to allow stocks to reach more sustainable levels?
