Tag Archives: Mary Beth Tooley
‘Until the last fish is gone.’ Cape Cod fishers worry trawling is depleting sea herring.
A number of the Cape’s small boat fishermen, whale watch captains, and fishing charter operators blame midwater trawlers for depletion of herring stock. That depletion, they claim, has had a negative economic impact on their businesses. John Pappalardo, Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance has worked for decades to do just that. He believes midwater trawlers are a big reason for the herring’s population decline. Mary Beth Tooley, government affairs manager for the O’Hara Corporation, The company’s trawlers take a small portion of the fish that are assessed “because we want that population to rebuild,” she said. >>click to read<< 08:38
Surge in baitfish catch is a boon to Maine’s lobstermen
Maine’s lobster fishermen typically bait their traps with dead herring, but a scientific assessment in 2020 found that herring are overfished, and quotas for the fish were reduced dramatically. The loss of herring has increased the price of bait and made it harder for many fishermen to trap lobsters. However, losing herring has been offset somewhat by swelling catches of menhaden. Maine’s catch of menhaden, also called pogies or bunker, grew from about 6 million pounds in 2016 to more than 24 million pounds last year. >click to read< 11:28
Drastic cut to herring quota puts Maine lobstermen over the bait barrel
The New England Fishery Management Council voted last month to set the 2019 herring quota at 3.2 million pounds – about 78 million pounds less than what the East Coast herring fleet is permitted to catch this year – to help the population recover from a record-low number of juvenile herring. To put the cut in context, that is about 2,000 tractor-trailer trucks of the industry’s favorite bait that won’t be showing up in New England lobster ports next year. >click to read<06:58
Lobsterman fear bait shortage with herring quota cut
At the height of the season, Brooklin lobsterman David Tarr spends $600 to $800 a day to bait his traps with herring, pogies or redfish. While some Maine lobstermen swear by herring, Tarr is willing to play the field based on price and availability. Unlike most of his peers, Tarr also has the luxury of a personal bait cooler, which allows him to buy bait when the price is right, salt it himself and store up to 200 barrels of it away — $40,000 of bait, enough for a half-season of fishing — for use during tough times. On Wednesday, one day after the New England Fisheries Management Council voted to recommend slashing the yearly herring quota by 80 percent, Tarr figures tough times are coming. “At a certain point, it is just not worth it,” Tarr said. “I won’t go fishing just to pay for my bait.”>click to read<14:03
Mashpee Selectmen Push To Move Herring Trawlers Off The Coast
The New England Fishery Management Council, a federal entity, will host several public hearings to solicit comments on possible alternatives under consideration in an amendment to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. More specifically, the council is seeking feedback from the public on which alternatives should be selected and why. One of those amendments includes forcing fishing vessels called midwater trawlers 12 miles off the Cape Cod shore.,,, But the operators of these midwater trawlers contest the proposed amendment,,, Mary Beth Tooley, a representative of O’Hara Corporation in Maine, says that about 80 percent of the Maine lobster fishery uses herring as bait. “That’s thousands of lobstermen that will be impacted,” >click to read<20:13
Out-of-state scallop boats threaten survival of Maine fishermen
After years of waiting for the northern Gulf of Maine scallop population to flourish, small-boat fishermen from Maine say federal mismanagement of scallop stocks in the area could result in larger boats wiping them out. Hancock fisherman James West said that larger boats, most of which are based out of state, should not be allowed unlimited catches when he is capped at harvesting only 200 pounds of meat a day. And he said he’s angry that the New England Fishery Management Council has known about the regulatory disparity for years and has done nothing to address it. “That’s what makes me so mad about it,” West said Sunday. “I’m shocked the council couldn’t figure out a way to fix this. We’re really getting the shaft.” Council officials say protecting the lucrative resource is a high priority that they plan to address in the coming year. But Maine fishermen say a year could be too late to ensure that federal scallop grounds in the gulf stay productive. continue reading the story here 07:36
Factory trawlers praised for halibut conservation
What a difference a year makes for the halibut bycatch controversy in the Bering Sea at the December meetings of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Anchorage. The flatfish factory trawlers, vilified for much of this year, reported vigorous and voluntary efforts at halibut conservation, and even received praise from the Pribilofs. Their zeal was prompted by what might be termed resolution number two-by-four of the fish council last summer, which slashed halibut bycatch by 25 percent. “I’m glad what is happening now is happening,” said Swetzof, who was furious when the issue first arose last year,,, Read the article here 18:32
Herring fishermen lose on higher haddock bycatch limit
Herring fishermen are struggling to avoid haddock because the stock on Georges Bank is increasing, said Tooley, who also is a council member but recused herself from Thursday’s vote. At the same time, federal regulators have lowered the cap for haddock bycatch from previous years, she said. “The biomass has gone up and the cap has gone down. That’s the problem,” she said. Read more here 11:12
