593 



AbStraCt-NMFS bottom trawl sun^ey 

 data wore used to describe changes 

 in distribution, abundance, and rates 

 of population change occurring in the 

 Gulf of Maine-Georges Bank herring 

 iClupea harengus) complex during 

 1963-98. Herring in the region have 

 fully recovered following severe over- 

 fishing during the 1960s and 1970s. 

 Three distinct, but seasonally inter- 

 mingling components from the Gulf 

 of Maine, Nantucket Shoals (Great 

 South Channel area), and Georges 

 Bank appear to compose the herring 

 resource in the region. Distribution 

 ranges contracted as herring biomass 

 declined in the late 1970s and then 

 the range expanded in the 1990s as 

 herring increased. Analysis of research 

 survey data suggest that herring are 

 currently at high levels of abundance 

 and biomass. All three components 

 of the stock complex, including the 

 Georges Bank component, have recov- 

 ered to pre-1960s abundance. Sur%'ey 

 data support the theory that herring 

 recolonized the Georges Bank region 

 in stages from adjacent components 

 during the late 1980s, most likely from 

 herring spawning in the Gulf of Maine. 



Recovery of the Gulf of Maine-Georges Bank 

 Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) complex: 

 perspectives based on bottom trawl survey data 



William J. Overholtz 



Kevin D. Friedland 



Northeast Fisheries Science Center 



National Marine Fishenes Service 



166 Water St 



Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 



E-mail (for W J. Overtioltz): willlam.overholtz@noaa.gov 



Manuscript accepted 13 February 2002. 

 Fish. Bull. 100:593-608 (2002). 



The Atlantic herring {Clupea haren- 

 gus) resource in the Northwest Atlan- 

 tic has been an important source of 

 food and commerce for nearly four 

 centuries (Anthony and Waring, 1980). 

 Simple wier fisheries with relatively 

 low landings began in the 1600s in 

 both the United States and Canada but 

 evolved into much larger operations, 

 and landings increased. The most im- 

 portant early fishery for herring in the 

 United States developed in the late 

 1800s, resulting in the building of nu- 

 merous sardine canning plants, with 

 annual landings eventually ranging 

 from 60,000 metric tons (t) to 100,000 t 

 by the early to mid 1900s (Anthony 

 and Waring, 1980). An important weir 

 fishery developed in New Brunswick 

 during the 1950s and provided fish for 

 canning operations in the region. Both 

 the U.S. and Canadian fisheries ini- 

 tially focused on juvenile fish; fisheries 

 for adults developed only when the 

 abundance of juveniles (available to 

 fixed gear) declined in the early 1960s 

 (Anthony and Waring, 1980). 



In the early 1960s Atlantic herring 

 on Georges Bank became the focus of 

 a major fishery by gill-net vessels from 

 the former Soviet Union (Hennemuth 

 and Rockwell, 1987). By the mid 1960s 

 distant-water herring fisheries had 

 developed in the Gulf of St Lawrence, 

 on the Scotian Shelf, on Georges Bank, 

 and on Jeffreys Ledge (Fig. 1) (Anthony 

 and Waring, 1980). Landings of her- 

 ring from the Gulf of St Lawrence to 

 Georges Bank peaked at over 900,000 t 

 in 1968, declining steadily thereafter 

 (Anthony and Waring, 1980). 



The Georges Bank herring fishery 

 (combined Nantucket Shoals and 

 (jeorges Bank region) began in 1961 and 

 increased rapidly to a peak of 373,000 t 

 in 1968 (Figs. 1 and 2). During the early 

 1970s, landings steadily declined and 

 in 1977 the herring fishery on Greorges 

 Bank collapsed (low landings and abun- 

 dance) (Fig. 2) (Anthony and Waiing, 

 1980; Tupper et al.^). During the same 

 period, landings in the Gulf of Maine 

 fishery ranged from 35,000 to 82,000 t 

 (Fig. 2). 



Stock assessments prepared by the 

 International Commission for North- 

 west Atlantic Fisheries (ICNAF) for 

 Georges Bank herring (combined Nan- 

 tucket Shoals and Georges Bank) be- 

 gan in the late 1960s, and annual total 

 allowable catch quotas (TAG) were es- 

 tablished in 1972. Annual assessments 

 were conducted by using virtual popu- 

 lation analysis (VPA) and results from 

 these assessments revealed that the 

 Georges Bank component peaked in 

 abundance in 1967 and rapidly de- 

 clined thereafter (Anthony and Waring, 

 1980). These findings were confirmed 

 by larval herring surveys conducted 

 during the 1970s and 1980s, where a 

 general decline in larval abundance in 

 the region was noted during 1975-78 

 and the complete absence of herring 

 larvae in the Georges Bank-Nantucket 



Tupper, M. H., V. C. Anthony, S. B. Che- 

 noweth, and H. A. MacCluen. 1998. Bi- 

 ology and assessment of Gulf of Maine 

 herring stocks, 104 p. Gulf of Maine 

 Aquarium, PO Box 7549, Portland, ME 

 04112. 



