Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 3 april 2019
Bait crisis could take the steam out of lobster this summer

By PATRICK WHITTLE cerned the cuts could be
Associated Press maintained for those years.
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The loss of herring is also a
The boom times for the U.S. heavy blow to the fisher-
lobster industry are imper- men who harvest the spe-
iled this year because of a cies, said Jeff Kaelin, who
shortage of a little fish that works in government rela-
has been luring the crus- tions for Lund's Fisheries, a
taceans into traps for hun- herring harvester based in
dreds of years. Cape May, New Jersey.
Members of the lobster "It's going to be tough on
business fear a looming everyone," Kaelin said, not
bait crisis could disrupt the just the people who catch
industry during a time when the herring, but also "the
lobsters are as plentiful, lobstermen who depend
valuable and in demand on it for historic bait supply."
as ever. America's lobster The U.S. lobster fishery set
catch has climbed this de- an all-time record for val-
cade, especially in Maine, ue at docks in 2016, when
but the fishery is dependent the catch was worth more
on herring — a schooling than $670 million. That was
fish other fishermen seek in also the year the herring
the Atlantic Ocean. catch fell to its lowest point
Federal regulators are im- In this Marc h 18, 2019 photo, herring cover the bottom of a barrel at a bait dealer in Portland, since 2002, though it was
posing a steep cut in the Maine. still more than 138 million
herring fishery this year, Associated Press pounds.
and some areas of the East assessment of the fish's on Georges Bank disrupt- menhaden, and some her- Lobsterman Jeffrey Peter-
Coast are already restrict- population last year by the ing herring," Deroba said. ring is available in freezers, son, who fishes out of the
ed to fishing, months be- National Oceanic and At- Georges Bank is a key fish- but fishermen said they're island town of Vinalhaven,
fore the lobster season gets mospheric Administration's ing area off New England. concerned there won't be Maine, said he's sure he'll
rolling. East Coast herring Northeast Fisheries Science Fishermen bring herring enough to go around. be able to load his traps
fishermen brought more Center. The assessment to shore mostly in Maine The New England Fishery with bait this summer. He's
than 200 million pounds of found a below-average and Massachusetts, which Management Council is just concerned about how
the fish to docks as recent- number of young herring are also the biggest lob- also considering herring expensive it'll be to do so.
ly as 2014, but this year's are surviving in the ocean. ster fishing states. Lobster- catch quota for 2020 and "It'll be around," he said. "It's
catch will be limited to less The loss of herring has men also load traps with 2021 later this year, and just how much they gouge
than a fifth of that total. sounded alarms among other kinds of bait, such as fishermen said they're con- you for it."q
The cut is leaving lobster- scientists and conserva-
also serve a critical role in WWF sounds alarm after 48 lbs of
men, who have baited tionists, because the fish
traps with herring for gen-
erations in Maine, scram- the ocean food chain and
bling for new bait sources they're valuable as food for plastic found in dead whale
and concerned about their humans. It's unclear exactly
ability to get lobster to cus- what factors are causing
tomers who have come to young herring to fail to sur- By COLLEEN BARRY
expect easy availability in vive to maturity, said Jona- Associated Press
recent years. than Deroba, lead assess- MILAN (AP) — An 8-me-
"If you don't have bait, ment scientist for herring ter (26-foot) sperm whale
you're not going to fish. If with the Northeast Fisheries was found dead off Sar-
the price of bait goes up, Science Center. He said it's dinia with 22 kilograms
you're not going to fish," "premature to predict the (48.5 pounds) of plastic
said Patrice McCarron, sky is falling," though he in its belly, prompting the
executive director of the added the herring popula- World Wildlife Foundation
Maine Lobstermen's Associ- tion could be suffering from to sound an alarm Monday
ation. "We have to take the multiple stresses at once. over the dangers of plas-
big picture, and make sure "We'd be foolish not to look tic waste in the Mediterra-
our communities continue at climate change. The nean Sea.The environmen-
to have viable fisheries." abundance of haddock, tal group said the garbage
The cut in the herring quo- which are egg preda- recovered from the sperm In this photo taken on Friday, March 29, 2019 and provided by
ta stems from a scientific tors. And fishing activity whale’s stomach included
a corrugated tube for elec- SEAME Sardinia Onlus, a whale is lifted up onto a truck after
trical works, plastic plates, being recovered off Sardinia island, Italy.
shopping bags, tangled Associated Press
fishing lines and a washing La Stampa. The exam also filling two-thirds of its stom-
detergent package with its determined that the whale ach.
bar code still legible. was carrying a fetus that WWF said plastic is one
“It is the first time we have had died and was in an of the greatest threats to
been confronted with an advance state of decom- marine life and has killed
animal with such a huge position. Experts said the at least five other whales
quantity of garbage,” mother whale had been that had ingested large
Cinzia Centelegghe, a bi- unable to digest calamari amounts of it over the last
ologist with the University of due to the huge amount two years from Europe to
Padova, told the Turin daily of plastic it had ingested, Asia. q