Proposed Herring Gold Rush in Gloucester Could Threaten Fish Sto

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

PROPOSED HERRING GOLD RUSH IN GLOUCESTER
 COULD THREATEN FISH STOCKS


WHAT: Gloucester Fishery Commission Meeting -  Discussion of
herring expansion plants

WHO: Gloucester Fishery Commission, Gloucester Initiatives,
Greenpeace


WHEN:  Thursday, April 10 - 7:00PM

WHERE:  Sawyer Free Library, Gloucester, Massachusetts


GLOUCESTER, MA - The Gloucester Fisheries Commission is holding
their monthly meeting during which they will discuss the proposed
$10 million herring and mackerel processing plant on the state fish
pier and the former incinerator vessel that is being retrofitted to
become a factory trawler to fish on the East Coast.  A business
group called the Gloucester Herring Corporation wants to build the
50,000 square foot plant and put into operation, at minimum, a 369
foot  factory trawler to catch and process the herring.  A Dutch
fishing company called Parlevliet & Van Der Plas would fund the
venture.  Last December Greenpeace blocked a Parlevliet & Van Der
Plas trawler, the Helen Mary, in the English Channel while it was
fishing for herring roe.  The Greenpeace protest was sparked
because the European Union reduced fishing in that region by 50% as
a means of saving the stocks.


Greenpeace and other local groups will attend the meeting to
address the concerns of the fishermen in Gloucester and throughout
New England and to alert residents to the negative environmental
effects that this type of fishing will have on ensuring the healthy
biomass of the Northwest Atlantic waters.  "The presence of this
factory trawler, with an 11,000 HP engine, invites similar vessels
looking for a fishery," said Niaz Dorry, Greenpeace Fisheries
Campaigner. "The North Pacific factory trawl fleet is already on
the record expressing interest." 

 Even with a healthy stock, many fishermen and others in the
fishing  communities experienced the negative impact of the factory
trawl  fleet on many fish stocks including herring, haddock, and
cod in the  1960s and 1970s.  Not only did the factory trawlers
play a major role  in the overfishing of commercial stocks, their
presence played havoc  on Georges Bank's ecosystem.  Currently,
there is no federal fishery  management plan for herring.  There
are some efforts to use the  current preliminary management plans
as a platform on which to build  a federal plan, but the Atlantic
States Marine Fisheries Commission  is only just starting this
process.

The plant, which would be the biggest of its kind in New England,
would pack and freeze more than 20,000 tons of herring each year
and ship it overseas, according to Frank Elliott, owner of a
Gloucester shipping company and president of Gloucester Herring
Corp.  Approval of this project would mark the return of factory
trawling to New England waters.  The project is currently backed by
Gloucester Mayor Bruce Tobey and Vito Colomo of the towns 
fisheries commission.

Greenpeace and other concerned groups are demanding that this
almost completed factory trawler and other factory trawlers be
stopped from entering the Northwest Atlantic waters.  The fishing
communities and the fish stock have suffered enough.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Niaz Dorry - Greenpeace Fisheries Campaigner (508)283-5893
Terri Johnson - Greenpeace Press Officer, Washington, DC
(202)319-2542