| On the road to protecting river herring |
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Marlene Schroeder My hope in attending the meeting was to have an opportunity to present the alarming decline of returning river herring to the Parker River from 1997 to 2010 and explain to fishery managers that our data is collected by many dedicated volunteer fish counters over 4,000 hours of observation. This is in addition to the hours they spend cleaning up the river to ensure fish passage. I wanted managers to understand this commitment and show of concern. Upon arrival, I was dismayed to learn that the council did not intend to consider a bycatch cap as one of the alternatives to reduce the numbers of river herring being caught by industrial trawlers. A breakthrough came when the representative of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Vince O’Shea, reintroduced the idea of a bycatch cap. The council discussed pros and cons of the idea and finally asked for public comment. I presented our data and emphasized that although I am one person from one organization, I represent many people and watershed groups that feel this bycatch issue needs to be addressed while river herring still have a chance at recovery. After my comment, council continued discussions until 8:30 p.m. and then adjourned for the night. It was with great satisfaction (and relief!) that I learned the session ended the next morning with a motion passed to include a river herring bycatch cap as one of the alternatives to be considered in the management plan. The trigger–as they called it–would lead to further management actions to reduce bycatch. We all need to follow the work of the Council and continue to push for a bycatch cap in the final amendment proposal. PRCWA is ready to join that challenge along with our Herring Alliance partners. Please keep in touch with the Alliance and PRCWA and sign up for our newsletters. We are actively making a difference in how the industrial fishery for Atlantic herring is managed! Marlene Schroeder is President of the Parker River Clean Water Association in Newbury, Massachusetts.
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Has anyone Else notice the Cormorants this Season? I remember a day in April where I watched one Cormorant eat 9 herring in a row. He dove down and found a herring came to the surface and ate the Herring. These are the same herring that they are trying to restrict us the fishermen who live in this country from fishing for. Cormorants are not native to this land and they are an invasive species. We first started seeing them down the shore about 10 years ago. Their numbers have explode so much that are traveling inland and attack our river systems. They eat all our smallmouth bass, perch, baby stripers, herring, you name it they eat it. They will devastate our eco system in less then two years if we continue to allow them them to rape our fisheries.
This year on Easter I was fishing the lower river in the morning and I counted over 700 Cormorants in flight heading to Trenton. When I got up to Trenton the next day or so I saw over 400 of them on the Island, another 300 in the trees on the island by the falls, about 12 on every rock, and below the Bridges I saw about 70 of them in the water eating our Herring. How long will we allow the states to regulate us when they have no idea what is going on in the eco system. How many times Have you encountered a game warden. I did once in 28 years at Penny Pack Park on opening day of Trout. They are not in the field and have no idea whats going on! I am going to do some simple math for you 400 Cormorants eating 7 Herring in an hour equals 2,800 Herring now multiply that along the whole river and by at least 40 days (how long you can catch herring in the river) and the number is devastating!!!!
Thank you, Marlene and the Parker River Clean Water Association, for your continued efforts to monitor and restore the Parker River herring run and for your active involvement in the Herring Alliance. At the January meeting, the Council also voted through a number of other promising management options improve catch monitoring and reduce river herring and groundfish bycatch in the Atlantic herring fishery. The Council will now work on analyzing all the options, which will be available for public comment sometime next fall.
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