Bait shortage hits lobster fishery
Herring is in short supply statewide, causing temporary bait shortages in the lobster fishery.
As reported in the Ellsworth American, federal and interstate restrictions on the Atlantic herring have direct impacts on the lucrative lobster fishery.
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the New England Fishery Management Council set annual quotas for Atlantic herring in five distinct coastal management areas. The quotas are subdivided into trimester allotments. If landings approach the subdivided quota before the trimester ends, the fishery can be closed.
That’s what happened in early September. Much of the herring used for bait during the late summer comes from a stretch of near-coastal waters known as Area 1A, which has an annual catch limit of 68.8 million pounds. Of that amount, 72.8% is allocated to the June-September period.
Regulators determined the quota for the trimester would likely be caught by the end of August, so they closed the fishery in that area one month early. Fishing continued farther offshore.
“Fish were scarce for about a week,” Wyatt Anderson, who runs the bait operation at O’Hara Co. in Rockland, one of the state’s largest bait dealers, told the newspaper. Anderson said the herring shortage was worse for some fishermen than others. It all depended on where they bought their bait.
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