Tag Archives: bait

Herring harvest healthy this year; outlook good for 2013 quota


By Melissa Waterman

First published in the MLA Newsletter, December, 2012.

Maine lobstermen use a lot of different things to bait their traps: tuna heads, rockfish, alfonsino, alewives, and many other fish they believe will attract lobsters. But their bait of choice traditionally has been herring. Lobstermen swear by the oily rotten splendor of Culpea harangis to lure even the most finicky lobster into the trap.

So the strength of the herring season is a constant worry in the minds of lobstermen each year. How are the fish doing? Are they schooling up well or broken into scattered clumps? Are they hiding on the bottom or moving up and down the water column? Strong landings of herring throughout the year but particularly in the fall months are critical to many Maine lobstermen. This year the National Marine Fisheries Service closed the herring season on November 5, when fishing vessels had reached 101% of the yearly quota overall.

Wyatt Anderson runs the O’Hara Corporation’s bait division in Rockland. The company operates two mid-water trawlers, the Sunlight and the Starlight, which fish for herring on Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. According to Anderson, 2012 was a decent year for herring. “We had a little glitch back in the early spring when there were few fish. But generally we did well out there,” he said. The two vessels between them can return 750,000 pounds of fish in one trip. “The fact that all the quota was caught is to me a sign that the stock’s in good shape,” he added.

The annual quota of herring is divided into four different areas in the Gulf of Maine (see table). In 2009 the National Marine Fisheries Service reduced the herring quota sharply based on its stock assessment and a conservative view of the stock’s overall strength (scientific uncertainty). In addition, it instituted a policy that required any overharvesting in one year to be “paid for” in the next through a reduction in that year’s quota.

Glenn Lawrence runs the Double Eagle, a wooden sardine carrier berthed in Rockland. He credits the good catches this year to the prohibition on mid-water trawlers fishing in the Gulf of Maine during the summer months which has been in place since 2007. “The fish were bunched up good,” he said. He found many juveniles, which once would have been suitable for canning, schooling around Matinic Island and fewer of the larger fish, sought by lobstermen for bait. “But it was certainly better than last year,” Lawrence added.

From a bait dealer’s perspective, it was a pretty good year as well. “There were a couple of dry spots [this spring] in between Area 2 closing and before Area 1A opened up,” Jenny Bichrest, owner of Purse Line Bait in Sebasco Estates, said. “Then it got tight again sometime in September, early October as the spawning closures came on. For three weeks no one caught any fish.” Her business was well supplied throughout the summer with herring caught on Georges Bank and in Area 1A. Yet Bichrest wasn’t happy that the season closed so early with another two lobstering months remaining in the year. “I would have like to put up a little more but I think we’re O.K.,” she said.

Glenn Robbins runs the 78-foot purse seiner Western Wave. This year he found himself setting on mostly juvenile herring around Mt. Desert Rock; the larger fish were found off Ipswich, Massachusetts, Portland and the Outer Falls. The herring behaved differently than in years past, Robbins said. “They wouldn’t come up to feed. You’d only get one set and then they’d go to the bottom and you would have to wait until morning for the next set,” he explained. “They just didn’t react as they used to.” Overall, however, the fishing was better this year than last year and much better than in 2010. “I’ve been fishing for 45 years and 2010 was the worst year I ever had,” Robbins said emphatically.

Things look brighter for next year. A benchmark stock assessment conducted this summer found the herring resource to be healthy. The New England Fishery Management Council’s “preferred alternative” proposes to set the 2013-2015 annual catch limit (ACL) at 107,800 mt which represents a 16,600 mt increase over the last three year period. The NEFMC has put forward several options on how those additional fish will be allocated amongst the management areas, including equally distributing the additional fish amongst all management areas, allocating the additional fish to best meet the demands of the fishery, and reallocating the small Area 1B quota to other areas. Even after subtracting the paybacks required for areas where too many fish were landed last year, more herring will be available to the industry in 2013. According to Anderson, “Everyone says that there’s more fish out there than the scientists say”. Bichrest is also glad that there will be additional quota next year. Her major concern isn’t herring, however, but menhaden. Many of her lobstermen prefer “pogies” to herring; the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is considering a substantial cut in the quota for that fish. “If they drop the quota on pogies the way they want to, then it will be really scary because I sell a lot more pogies than herring,” she explained.

The Art of Fishing: Purse seining for herring


By Melissa Waterman

First published in the MLA Newsletter, November, 2012.

Once upon a time, everyone ate herring. Canned as sardines, the fish were part of the American diet for many decades. Men, women and children, the population of entire Maine towns, lived by the blast of the sardine factory horn. Maine fishermen supplied those factories with thousands upon thousands of pounds of herring each year, from brush and net weirs, from stop seines set across coves, and from purse seines hauled at sea.

Pumping herring held in a purse seine into a waiting carrier. No date. From the Red Boutilier Collection, Penobscot Marine Museum.

But bit by bit, American tastes changed. Sardines were no longer the staple food of soldiers, as they were in World War I and II. Consumers found the lure of fast food outlets more appealing than a can of sardines for lunch. Herring harvests in Maine dropped steadily over the decades, despite improvements in fishing technology and vessels. In 1950, more than 185 million pounds of herring were landed in Maine. By 2011, that number was less than 9 million pounds. The last sardine cannery in Maine closed its doors in Gouldsboro in 2010.

Herring also has always been a favored bait of Maine’s lobstermen. As the number of lobstermen setting traps has increased, so has demand for the fish as bait. Catching herring is a multi-million dollar business, bringing more than $14 million into the state last year. Large mid-water trawl vessels set sail for Georges Bank with purse seiners working closer to shore in the early summer months to haul the fish back to waiting bait dealers by the ton. And these vessels traverse the Gulf of Maine in the fall scooping up the fish so desired by lobstermen during the hectic fall months.

But what was it like long ago, when technology was less advanced and the fish still came close to shore? Bobby Warren of Vinalhaven, 69, remembers. Warren began lobster fishing when he was eleven years old. He started herring fishing on the island in the early 1960s. “We’d do weir fishing in all the coves, Old Harbor, Dyer’s, Robert’s Cove. And later stop seining. Then I went purse seining,” he recalled. “When I first started it was all by hand. There was no power block involved. Eventually we got a block and a roller [to haul the net closer to the boat].”

Hauling aboard the Wave Guide, 1962. From the Red Boutilier Collection, Penobscot Marine Museum.

Lobster bait issues await federal resolution


By Nancy Griffin and Patrice McCarron

First published in the MLA Newsletter, October, 2012.

The Maine lobster industry, already challenged by low prices and cross-border squabbles, also struggles with questions about bait: What will be available for harvesters next year? Menhaden, Atlantic and river herrings and alternative baits all have issues that must be resolved on federal or state levels before harvesters can plan their next season around them.

Herring remains the predominant bait used by Maine lobstermen but its prevalence has declined in recent years. According to Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) port sampling data, herring comprised 66 percent of bait used in 2008, when measured by trap haul, down from 74 percent in 2006—a direct correlation to the 30 percent reduction in the inshore herring quota during this time period. At the same time, use of menhaden for bait increased to 22 percent of bait by trap haul in 2008, up from 12 percent in 2006. The state’s 2011 data show the use of herring remained steady at 67%, while menhaden use increased to 30%. The use of other baits including frozen hard baits and other non-native baits has increased significantly during this time.

Herring provides food in the wild for many species but are landed commercially and sold as bait for lobster harvesters and as a food source for developing nations. Herring is jointly managed by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC). The Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan adopted in 1999 established a management structure which requires an allowable catch for the fishery, sub-allocated by management area.

The most recent piece of the herring plan, Amendment 4, originally included a broad range of issues such as catch monitoring program, river herring bycatch measures, criteria for midwater trawl access to groundfish closed areas, and measures to address interactions with the Atlantic mackerel fishery. However, the Council split the document so that Amendment 4 could deal with the new requirements mandated by the Magnuson Stevens Act such as setting annual catch limits (ACLs) and accountability measures (AMs) in time for the 2011 fishing season as required by the law. The Council is working on the other issues through Amendment 5.

In early August, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler tossed out Amendment 4, making it null as of August, 2013. The order requires National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the Council to review the most recent science, take action to minimize the bycatch of river herring and shad and consider new approaches for setting the allowable catch for sea herring that accounts for its role as food for other fish, birds, and whales.

Because Amendment 4 was split, DMR Commissioner Patrick Keliher said the split “provided a perfect vehicle to initiate a lawsuit but this lawsuit may well result in further time delays in streamlining shad and river herring by catch reduction measures.”

A review of the most recent science was conducted through the 2012 herring benchmark stock assessment, which included an estimation of the role of herring as a forage species. The assessment concluded that sea herring stock is rebuilt – it is not overfished and over fishing is not occurring. Based on these results, NEFMC is in the process of developing its next 3-year specification package to set overall catch limit and allocations for each management area. Preliminary recommendations could result in a 16,000 metric ton increase annual quota available to the herring fishery for the 2013 to 2015 fishing seasons, though those measures will not be in place in time for the start of the 2013 fishing season. NEFMC will begin deliberations during their September meeting with a final decision expected later this year.

NEFMC and NMFS are still working to comply with the judge’s order to minimize the bycatch of shad and river herring in the sea herring catch. “The judge allowed the council one year to address the ruling so any additional bycatch mitigation measures will not be in place for FY 2013,” said Keliher. Thus it is unlikely that the herring bait situation will change for next year. It is anticipated that these bycatch measures likely will be implemented through Amendment 5.

The future of menhaden, which comprised nearly 30% of Maine’s bait supply in 2011, has become a hotly debated topic amongst managers, recreational anglers and commercial harvesters. In September, ASMFC released draft Amendment 2 which includes a range of harvest reductions from 0 to 50% from current harvest levels. According to ASMFC, both the 2010 benchmark stock assessment and the 2012 stock assessment update indicate the stock is experiencing overfishing but the stock is not overfished based on the reference points used in the most recent assessment. The assessment also indicates that the number of fish in the population has been declining. Amendment 2 is designed to take steps to end overfishing and manage Atlantic menhaden not only as a fishery but as a critical ecosystem component.

In August, 16 members of Congress, including Representatives Michaud and Pingree, wrote to the ASMFC raising concerns over the flaws in the menhaden assessment. Of greatest concern was the omission of the results of a University of New England aerial survey of the northern range of the menhaden stock which indicates that the menhaden stock is twice as big as the assessment indicates. Due to issues surrounding data and the model used to assess the stock, the ASMFC states that “uncertainties in the 2012 stock assessment update make it difficult to quantify the level of reductions needed to meet those goals [of Amendment 2].”

Substituting alternatives baits for herring and menhaden constitute another complicated issue, although resolution at the state level appears to be in sight.

A problem arose several years ago when moose and deer carcasses—body parts with hair still on them—were pressed into service as bait. State officials and others thought the public image of feeding lobsters animal body parts might not be the best one for the industry, an idea reinforced when some diners reported finding hairballs in the stomachs of their cooked lobster. Concerns also arose about the possibility of land-based pathogens polluting the marine environment.

In 2005, the Legislature passed a law allowing the DMR to regulate the use of alternative baits, defined as baits not originating from the marine environment, and banned the use of offal, or the waste parts of non-marine organisms, making an exception for “hairless hides,” or treated hides already sold and used commercially as lobster bait. The Legislature also granted the Commissioner the authority to pass rules to protect public health. In 2007, DMR created regulations requiring alternative bait companies to list all ingredients on their labels. In 2012, yet another bait law was passed by the Legislature to give DMR authority to develop a list of approved freshwater species for use as bait, and a list of marine species which are not approved for use as bait to include the location from which it is harvested.

“Although people knew that non-marine organisms meant land-based, not freshwater organisms,” it was necessary to pass a law to clarify the situation, said Deirdre Gilbert, Director of Marine Policy with the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR). “We went to the legislature and said there was some confusion around freshwater fish, because it was technically prohibited, but some was already in use.”

Although marine organisms were allowed, salmon racks have long been banned out of fear of spreading ISA (infectious salmon anemia), a disease that often infects farmed fish in pens. Most freshwater fish were not a problem, but carp caught in some parts of the country might be an issue at some times of the year, Gilbert explained.

“It seemed like someone should have control over this,” she said, so the DMR was granted rulemaking power to create a list of allowable freshwater species and banned saltwater species. Before entering into rulemaking, Gilbert said the DMR is talking to dealers to find out what they’re seeing that’s available to sell, and taking feedback from industry participants.

In order to have proper guidance for determining what’s allowed and what’s not, DMR and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IF&W) will share a new pathologist who can make recommendations on the subject. In the interim, before rulemaking and the pathologist is hired, the DMR has been awarded $25,000 this year from the Lobster Research, Education and Development fund, which is funded by the sale of lobster license plates, to pay a consultant to help with the determinations.

So you want to know: Where does this frozen bait come from?


By Emily Elliott

First published in the MLA Newsletter, June, 2012

While lobsters prefer fresh food, they will eat just about anything. As the plentiful supply of fresh herring has diminished and frozen baits have become more common, the nature of what lobstermen use as bait has changed as well. In the brave new world of bait, more and more bait dealers can offer unusual fish processed in exotic locales to Maine lobstermen.

Frozen bait now comes from the far ends of the globe to Maine’s many lobster wharves. Patrice McCarron photo.

Seth Anderson of O’Hara Bait in Rockland carries a variety of bait products at his facility. He said the bait industry has undergone many changes in the sixteen years he has been in the business as lobstermen moved from using primarily fresh to mostly frozen lobster bait. The strangest bait fish he had on hand in mid-May were orange roughy and alfonsino from New Zealand. He also has carried split Asian carp heads from Mississippi and tuna heads from Vietnam.

“I sometimes get rockfish from Vancouver, the equivalent of redfish. I’ve gotten Icelandic sheepheads and buffaloheads from Illinois. Some of these fish are the byproduct of flooding in the catfish farms down south in the 1990s,” Anderson said.

The rockfish at O’Hara Bait come from the seafood distributor, Pacific Seafood, located in Oregon. According to Tyson Yech, sales representative at Pacific Seafood, the fish are wild-caught along the Canadian, Alaskan and Californian coasts. “The fish are caught with trawl nets or sometimes hook and line from fishermen. They are offloaded at the docks and sent to our factories. We slice up the fish into fillets, which we sell to wholesalers, retailers, and restaurants. The leftover carcasses are used for bait,” Yech said.

Jenny Bichrest owns and operates Purse Line Bait in Sebasco Estates. She said that most non-traditional bait sold today is caught in the United States, processed overseas and shipped back to American bait dealers. Purse Line often buys Asian carp heads and cobia harvested in Mississippi, as well as tuna heads from Ghana.

Anthony Robinson of Dropping Springs Bait in Portland sells primarily pogies and herring, the baits long favored by lobstermen. In the seven years he’s been in business, the strangest bait he’s seen offered for sale is rawhide. Yes, rawhide, from a cow. “The strangest thing I have on hand right now is probably rockfish from Vancouver, British Columbia. I really usually just carry the ordinary stuff for this area. I don’t get a lot of really unusual fish as bait,” Robinson said.

Glenn Hall, owner of Superior Bait and Salt in Tenant’s Harbor sells only pogies and herring, nothing out of the ordinary. “This is a small outfit, a family operation. We don’t process a lot and we do all the work ourselves, my family and I. We get some help from a couple of housewives. We don’t have a big freezer or train cars to allow us to transport those foreign fish. We pride on ourselves on the quality of our bait, that’s why we’re named Superior Bait,” Hall said.

Herring runs in his blood, Hall said. “I’ve been in the bait business since 1975, in the herring business all my life. I started out purse, then stop-seining, and running herring with my boat. Eventually we bought trucks. We built this business from the bottom up.”

Steaming Ahead: May 2012


By Patrice McCarron

First published in the MLA Newsletter, May, 2012

A perfect storm is forming which could deal a devastating blow to the bait supply for the lobster industry. Management changes for Maine’s two primary bait sources – herring and menhaden – are underway. A recent court decision over one of our spring favorites, alewives, could lead to further restrictions in the herring plan. And the status of alewives is being carefully reviewed as part of a petition to have them listed as an endangered species.

The fate of the herring management plan, known as Amendment 5, is extremely important to our industry because herring continues to serve as our primary bait. Data from the Maine Department of Marine Resources indicates that herring was used in 59% of traps hauled by Maine lobstermen in 2011. Although still very significant, herring use has fallen considerably since the cuts to the Area 1A herring quota began in 2007 when herring was used in 83% of traps hauled.

The proposed changes to the herring management plan focus on improving monitoring the commercial catch. The MLA submitted comments to the New England Fishery Management Council supporting 100% observer coverage for the largest herring vessels which account for 98% of the landings, but urged managers to ensure that the cost of observers be carefully monitored and on par with rates paid in other regions of the US. Given the importance of sustainably managing the herring fishery, the MLA urged that government funds be secured to pay for comprehensive observer coverage.

As the primary consumer of herring, any cost incurred by the herring fleet will inevitably be passed onto lobstermen. The MLA’s weekly monitoring of bait prices shows that the lobster industry has already absorbed a nearly 30% increase in the average cost of bait over the three years from 2007 when herring sold for an average of $21/bushel to 2010 when a bushel of herring sold for an average of $27. With the tightening of profit margins in the lobster industry due to soft boat price and increased operating expenses, lobstermen cannot afford to absorb the cost of implementing comprehensive observer coverage in the herring industry.

Also of concern with the herring plan is the recent court decision which could lead to new monitoring requirements of alewives landed as bycatch. The level of accountability required under the new provisions of the Magnuson Act could lead to a shutdown of the fishery if established bycatch levels are exceeded. And any herring landed in excess of the allowed quota in one year is automatically deducted from the next’s year’s allowable catch limit.

As the Maine lobster industry has adjusted to reductions in the herring quota over the last 5 years, menhaden has become an increasingly important source of bait. DMR data indicates that menhaden was used in 22% of traps hauled in 2011, compared to 12% of traps hauled in 2006. And a recent survey conducted by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute in 2011 shows that bait use varies by region of the coast with menhaden accounting for nearly 40% of the bait supply in Zone F.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is moving forward with a new management plan for menhaden, known as Amendment 2, to identify management strategies to significantly reduce the fishing mortality in the menhaden fishery. This will result in reductions in harvest and directly impact many of Maine’s lobstermen with anticipated bait shortages and increases in bait price.

The MLA strongly urged the Commission to complete a comprehensive new benchmark stock assessment of the menhaden resource using the best available modeling methods, best available data including a recent industry sponsored aerial survey and incorporate the recommendations put forward by the recent peer review panel before considering harvest restrictions. The MLA also supported the implementation of a timely, streamlined reporting system, with all dealers required to report on a weekly basis.

The Maine lobster industry has already made significant adjustments to respond to changes in the availability of bait. We have a substantially diversified the bait supply and added significant cold and frozen storage capacity. However, bringing in baits from regions outside the northwest Atlantic — such as from fresh water sources, the Pacific or from foreign countries — adds risk of introducing disease to our waters. The Lobster Advisory Council has worked with the University of Maine to identify and better understand some of these potentials risks. In response, the Legislature recently granted Maine DMR authority to regulate non-native baits in order to manage this risk.

The cumulative impacts of the changes to the herring and menhaden management plans, potential listing of alewives as endangered, and the state’s authority to authorize baits for use in the lobster fishery are likely to result in increased bait prices and could result in bait shortages.

The MLA invests a significant amount of time advocating for a sustainable and healthy bait supply for Maine lobstermen. And with record numbers of lobster being landed, this work is becoming more important than ever.

As always, stay safe on the water