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Recent Atlantic Herring Information 
Links to PDF files below may require Adobe Acrobat or the free Adobe Reader (download here) to view or print.
- Annual catch: The U.S. commercial Atlantic herring fishery annually catches ~100,000 metric ton (<50% of current MSY)
- 2006 State of Maine Landings were ~51,000 metric ton, worth ~ $10.6 Million (http://www.maine.gov/dmr/commercialfishing/documents/Herring.pdf, 2 pages )
- Stock Assessment Summary
- Herring are assessed by a Trans-boundary Resource Assessment Committee (TRAC) which is composed of State, Federal, Canadian, and independent scientists
- 2006 TRAC recommendations
- Herring are important for forage and predation which are accounted by scientists and managers in two ways:
- An assumed natural mortality (M) of 0.2 (~18%)
- The TRAC recommended looking at a higher level for the next assessment
- Setting precautionary quotas that are lower than the MSY
- Management: Herring are managed by two separate processes:
- Recent NEFMC management changes implemented in 2007:
- Recent ASMFC management changes implemented in 2007:
- Recent announcements
- Data and Monitoring Protocols:
- Fishery Catch, Landings, and Biological Sampling Methods
- Interactive Voice Reports (IVR) - Weekly harvester reports for quota monitoring
- Vessel Trip Reports (VTR)- Monthly trip level harvester reports for assessment
- SAFIS- Weekly Dealer Reporting for economic information and landings
- Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) - satellite system for tracking vessel position & enforcement
- Area quotas (or TACs) are monitored using a combination of IVR and SAFIS reports (http://www.nero.noaa.gov/ro/fso/reports/reports_frame.htm, select Atlantic Herring at the left)
- Maine DMR conducts biological catch sampling to evaluate size, age, and maturity for assessment and management purposes
- By-catch Issues: While the Plan Development Team has determined that the current observer coverage is not sufficient to make estimations, two monitoring systems are used to examine by-catch and to address concerns of River Herring and Groundfish incidental catch. (http://nefmc.org/herring/planamen/final_herring_a1.htm)
- Federal at sea observers
- Maine DMR’s Portside Bycatch Samplin
For more information, contact Matt Cieri.
Last updated
July 10, 2009
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