Amendment 8, which prohibits year-round midwater trawling along our shore, is finally a law and went into effect last month. This amendment will offer greater protection for river herring—especially as they approach and leave their natal waters while spawning.
We “sat down” with David Mussina, a member of New England Fishery Management Council’s Herring Advisory Panel to chat about what amendment 8 means for the Mystic’s river herring. You may also know David as a photographer and MyRWA policy committee member, and river herring monitor. MyRWA salutes David for his remarkable contributions to the river herring eco-success story on the Mystic.
How will this amendment protect river herring?
Amendment 8 is excellent news for river herring, which spend most of their lives in the ocean. The Mystic River Watershed and other watersheds all along our Atlantic coast have been increasing habitat for river herring to spawn. Still, the river herring population has remained at historic lows. Two studies (below) provide evidence of high river herring bycatch levels by the Atlantic herring fishery as a significant factor.
Amendment 8 is significant. It prohibits the use of midwater trawlers 12 nautical miles from the shore, U.S./Canada border to the Connecticut/Rhode Island border, and 20 nautical miles off the east coast of Cape Cod. The year-round midwater trawl restriction should reduce the catch of river herring, shad, and the coastal Atlantic herring stock. Additionally, this will ensure more herring are available to predators, e.g., cod, humpback whales, and sea birds.
Additionally, an acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule is now in place. The control rule ensures a sustainable Atlantic herring harvest by accounting for the herring's role as forage for its ecosystem.
One study(1) found the Atlantic herring fishery in near-shore areas is associated with high river herring bycatch levels. This amount of bycatch is due to the river herring's migratory behavior at sea and their tendency to school with Atlantic herring. Therefore, the Atlantic herring fishery follows the river herring's seasonal migration overwintering in southern New England and northern mid-Atlantic waters and travels northward during the spring. This migration accounts for high numbers of river herring bycatch by the fishery in Southern New England waters and the Northern Mid-Atlantic Bight during the winter and high bycatch numbers from the Gulf of Maine, Southern New England, and the Northern Mid-Atlantic Bight during the spring.
Another study(2) states river herring bycatch, particularly by the southern New England Atlantic herring fishery, may be contributing to that area's depleted river herring numbers. Of the northern New England, southern New England, mid-Atlantic genetic stocks of alewife, the southern New England stock (Mystic River south to Hudson River) had the highest total proportion, 72.5% of alewife herring bycatch. The northern New England stock had 7.5% of alewife bycatch, mid-Atlantic 20%. For blueback herring, the mid-Atlantic genetic stock had the highest total proportion, 80%, of bycatch.
The studies cited are dated. Both the southward winter and the northward spring herring migrations may have moved further north due to the warming waters along our northeastern coastline.
How did you become involved in the Herring Advisory Council, and what does your participation look like?
Ten years ago, Greg Wells, from the Herring Alliance, gave a presentation to MyRWA about river herring and how the industrial fishing fleet catches large numbers of river herring as bycatch. Shortly after, Brad Chase, Aquatic Biologist III at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, presented his overview of river herring habitat in our watershed as the fish ladder was about to be constructed at the Upper Mystic Lake's dam. MyRWA then agreed to join the Herring Alliance and work with them to reduce river herring bycatch. I volunteered to track the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) to update MyRWA on any bycatch actions to support.
In the years following, I wrote MyRWA policy letters to the NEFMC supporting the setting of catch caps to limit river herring bycatch, having monitors aboard fishing vessels to make sure large catches of river herring are recorded as bycatch and are not dumped at sea—and MyRWA's strong support of Amendment 8.
Based on my advocacy for the better protection of river herring from overfishing, Katherine Duel, at PEW, brought to my attention an opening on the Herring Advisory Panel. This Panel made recommendations to the Herring Committee at the NEFMC. With Patrick Herron’s strong letter of recommendation and support from members at the NEFMC, I joined the Panel in 2020. The Herring Advisory Panel, Herring Committee, and the larger NEFMC have members from both the fishing industry and those supporting our Atlantic and river herring populations' recovery.
Being on the Herring Advisory Panel has a bit of a learning curve. It does gives me a chance to follow the latest research and be a voice to speak and vote on behalf of our herring restoration efforts.
What was the advocacy process to get this amendment passed?
The Herring Advisory Panel, Herring Committee, and NEFMC spent years working on Amendment 5, which addressed unregulated river herring bycatch caught mostly by midwater trawlers fishing for Atlantic herring. Finally, in 2011, the New England Fishery Management Council approved 100% monitor coverage aboard all vessels fishing for Atlantic herring. This policy enabled all river herring caught as bycatch to be recorded. Also, a limit was set on the number of times a net full of river herring or other untargeted fish could be dumped, called slippage. Slippage in times of mechanical failure or safety concerns is necessary. However, on an unmonitored trawler, a catch of unwanted fish, such as a river herring school, could be dumped and not recorded as bycatch. Finally, river herring catch caps are proposed to limit the numbers caught.
Amendment 5 had strong support from recreational fishermen and the Herring Alliance. Representing MyRWA, I joined the hundreds of people attending Public Meetings and those writing letters of support for Amendment 5. NEFMC members such as David Pierce, Director of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, supported a bycatch limit on river herring and monitors on board all midwater trawlers to record river herring caught as bycatch accurately.
Unfortunately, NOAA Fisheries rejected 100% monitor coverage saying there was not enough Federal money. Also, NOAA rejected the Council's decision to limit slippage. It did approve the setting of catch caps as a future action, and river herring catch caps have now been put in place.
Electronic monitoring (cameras) is beginning to be installed on midwater trawlers, reducing slippage. While all the fish in a ship's hold are recorded when it comes to port, the monitoring of midwater trawling at sea is only partially covered. We still do not have accurate records of river herring caught at sea.
With the unregulated onboard monitoring of river herring caught as bycatch, the restriction of midwater trawling along the coast with Amendment 8 became our best option.
What do you hope this amendment will mean for the Mystic and our river herring migration?
Our Mystic alewife population may be among the Atlantic herring schools caught by midwater trawlers as bycatch. Amendment 8 is a significant step for better protecting our river herring while in the ocean from ships that are midwater trawling for Atlantic herring.
1Cournane, et al, 2013. Spatial and temporal patterns of anadromous alosine bycatch in the US Atlantic herring fishery. Fisheries Research 141:88-94
2Hasselman, et.al. 2015. Genetic stock composition of marine bycatch reveals disproportional impacts on depleted river herring genetic stocks. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatics Science. 73: 1
