Maine’s lobster industry, which depends largely on fresh herring for bait, recently may have gotten a small break on its supply of the fish this year. Regulators have had quotas on how much herring may be caught by any means in any given year. It is found that last summer, the quota for the inner Gulf of Maine had been reduced over the previous two years from 60,000 metric tons to 45,000.
As far as the overall limit is concern there has been a much smaller quota on the amount of herring that may be caught with fixed gear such as weirs and stop seines, which are used to block off inlets after herring swim in. Fixed-gear fishermen have an overall annual quota of 500 metric tons. Like their counterparts on the open water, they have had restrictions on how many days each week they can fish.
Terry Stockwell, director of external affairs for the Maine Department of Marine Resources, explained that the exemption was approved by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission at its meeting last month. He also said that the exemption could help Maine lobstermen who also use fixed gear to catch more of their own bait.
Maine’s lobster industry alone uses 60,000 metric tons of bait each year, which is 15,000 metric tons more than the annual herring quota in the Gulf of Maine. Though there was some controversy within the herring fleet last year about how the annual quota played out, the new fishing-days exemption for fixed gear does not appear to be a concern for trawler operators and purse seiners.
