Herring are small in stature, but the silver fish’s importance is immeasurable and has galvanized hundreds across the Massachusetts Cape and Islands to speak on its behalf.
A pivotal moment for the future of Atlantic herring will be Sept. 25, when the New England Fishery Management Council votes on whether to push midwater trawls 50 miles off the Cape’s shores. The vote, set to take place in Plymouth, Massachusetts is the culmination of nearly 15 years of work to protect inshore waters and the bounty that local fishermen rely upon.
“The Fishermen’s Alliance has raised this issue for many years out of concern that one day we may end up collapsing the herring fishery like the foreign fleets of the ’60s and ’70s did, and it took 20 years for the herring resources to return,” said Nick Muto, Captain of the fishing vessel Dawn T and Chair of the Board of Directors for the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance.
In recent weeks it has become clear the herring stock has indeed collapsed, based on stock assessments conducted by scientists and distributed to fisheries managers. But those who spend time on the water already knew the situation was dire.
“Our fall bass fishery, which was considered one of the best in the world, is completely history. There is no forage for them anymore. (The herring) are all being sucked up by the midwater trawlers,” said Bob DeCosta, who owns Albacore Charters on Nantucket. Tourism, restaurants, lodging and other businesses have all lost revenue, he added; “That’s a social-economic impact to Nantucket (that) is almost immeasurable.”
Longtime fisherman Eric Hesse, of Barnstable, said midwater trawls don’t discriminate. Using small mesh nets the size of football fields, they catch anything in their path. By removing a crucial part of the food chain, they shatter the ecosystem and everything from tuna to whales to birds leave the area in search of food.
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Far more than fishermen support an inshore ban. A dozen local boards of selectmen, the entire Cape and Islands State House delegation, the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, a host of non-profits (including the Compact of Cape Cod Conservation Trusts), have all come out firmly in support of pushing midwater trawls 50 miles off the coast. The Association to Preserve Cape Cod, which monitors and studies the river herring population on Cape Cod, has also taken a strong stand to move the big boats offshore because they catch river herring as well as ocean herring. Cape towns have invested millions of dollars to open up freshwater herring runs and encourage river herring to return, only to see them scooped up and discarded just a few miles from shore.
“We have a very strong feel for the significant depletion of those stocks over the years,” said Andrew Gottlieb, the executive director of APCC. “Having a significant portion of river herring wiped out as bycatch clearly dwarfs a lot of the measures to protect them in all 15 towns on Cape Cod.”
September 25 will be a fulcrum moment in the effort to create better ecosystem management.
“Protecting herring is the key way to protect our independent, small-boat fishing community, and respect the amazing, intricate offshore world on which it relies, and we all thrive,” said John Pappalardo, Chief Executive Officer of the Fishermen’s Alliance.
The council’s final vote is scheduled to take place at Hotel 1620, Plymouth, Massachusetts at 1:45 p.m. The public is invited and encouraged to attend and offer comment.