Atlantic herring are food for whales and dolphins ― and the larger fish we love to eat ― tuna, haddock, codfish and striped bass. But an industrial-scale fishing fleet is jeopardizing this key resource with impacts to the ecosystem.
Herring Alliance is working to protect marine wildlife and the ecosystem. Join our efforts.
Fishing industry consultants, on the other hand, dominated the process — so much so that some in attendance questioned whether efforts by industry representatives to steer the discussion might have violated protocol.
River herring are small fish with a big impact on our river and marine ecosystems. Massive industrial fishing boats began targeting Atlantic herring in ocean waters in the mid-1990s, and scoop up an alarming number of river herring. A new river herring stock assessment confirms that ocean bycatch is a serious threat to river herring recovery.
Unfortunately, their life history (they’re born in freshwater streams but spend most of their lives in the ocean) has river herring falling through the cracks of the management system, and has led to an inadequate patchwork of state, interstate, and federal rules.
Check out our map detailing this river herring robbery and write a letter to help protect these fish!
For Immediate Release
BOSTON, MA (MAY 2, 2012) – A new stock assessment confirmed that river herring- alewife and blueback herring- along the Atlantic seaboard are depleted, with many populations in a dangerously diminished state.
“The report confirms what many in the community already knew about our all-time low numbers of river herring,” said Steve Pearlman, coordinator of the Watershed Action Alliance of Southeastern Massachusetts. “We need better management measures, supporting the calls of commercial and recreational fishermen, watershed groups, bird watchers, conservationists, and other groups that care about these important fish.”
