— An amazing thing happened in the Gulf of Maine this
summer.

It was like the sea came alive again before our very eyes.

Vast schools of tuna, groundfish, striped bass, dolphins,
porpoises, whales and numerous seabirds returned in numbers
our vicinity hasn't seen in years.

It reminded us just how productive the ocean can be, if we give
it a chance. What explains this sudden rejuvenation?

Many Mainers who make their living from the sea think we know
the answer. Over the summer, mid-water trawlers (vessels
between 100 and 165 feet long) were prohibited from towing
their nets -- as wide as a football field and as tall as a six-story
building -- in coastal waters for the first time.

That allowed a comeback for the most valuable fish in the sea:
herring, on which so many other species depend.

On Wednesday, the New England Fishery Management Council
will decide if this information, coupled with reams of scientific
evidence that show herring as the ocean's keystone species,
warrant making it a management priority in 2008.

Commonsense and hard-learned lessons from recent fisheries
management failures make protecting herring a top concern.

However, Department of Marine Resources Commissioner
George Lapointe (our state's representative to the council) has
not yet committed to supporting a herring action.

The mid-water trawling industry says there is not enough
scientific evidence to compel such action. While it is true that
our science about herring is lacking, a dearth of information is
no excuse for putting the health of the ocean's most critical fish
on the back burner.

In fact, such a risk-tolerant approach flies in the face of lessons
from the groundfish crisis of the 1980s and 1990s.

That event produced an ecological catastrophe we are still
paying for today in the loss of thousands of vessels and tens of
thousands of processing jobs in Maine and across the region.

A number of factors unique to herring mid-water trawlers
demand immediate action from the council.

The first is lack of accountability. The government projects that
it will have observers on less than 5 percent of all mid-water
trawl trips this year, as compared to nearly 100 percent were
these boats to be fishing in Canada or Alaska.

Another is waste. Mid-water trawlers use 1-inch mesh
(compared to 6-inch for groundfish), which not only captures
large amounts of herring but also tuna, striped bass, haddock
and many other species that are dumped overboard and go
unrecorded.

Yet another is overfishing. While the mid-water industry claims
it is one of the few fisheries to operate under a total allowable
catch (or TAC), the limits are repeatedly exceeded.

For example, the TAC off the backside of Cape Cod was overshot
by about 30 percent in 2006; between January and May this
year, the inshore Gulf of Maine TAC was surpassed by more than
60 percent.

And then there's lobster bait. Because the aforementioned
excess is taken off of the June to December portion of the TAC,
thousands of tons of herring will be unavailable for Maine's
lobstermen this fall.

Finally, there's fairness. The industrial fleet is currently allowed 5
percent groundfish bycatch in most of the ocean and 1 percent
in areas closed to commercial groundfishermen.

This may seem like a small amount, but the fleet's harvest is so
large that it translates into a potential bycatch of over 3 million
pounds of haddock and other groundfish in one year.

It would take Port Clyde's groundfishermen over 123 years to
land that many fish.

Commissioner Lapointe and the fisheries council must
acknowledge that uncertainty is inherent in managing all
fisheries. They should also admit that it is easier to prevent
environmental damage than to repair it later.

Therefore, they should make herring a priority in 2008.

When it comes to the most important fish in the sea, caution is
warranted and should be demanded. We cannot and should not
allow history to repeat itself. Our businesses and communities
depend on it.


-- Special to the Press Herald