Herring Update

[ron merly]

 Subject: Herring Update

Dear friends of river herring and shad: 

 

There is good news for the conservation of river herring. On June 27th the New England Fishery Management Council voted to recommend several reforms, including 100% monitoring for large Atlantic-herring fishing vessels in federal waters. This will provide the information needed to assess how many of the smaller river herring and shad are being destroyed as bycatch, never having a chance to make it back to Connecticut rivers.  The Council also took the important step of recommending a cap on the taking of herring.  (It is expected that the cap will encourage herring fishing managers to develop their own efficiency rules.)  Development and implementation of the cap have several legal and funding hurdles to get over.  But the outlook is positive.   

 

Rivers Alliance was present at the Council meeting on the 27th in Portland, and can report that Connecticut played a positive role on the Council through the presence of Mark Alexander from DEEP.  Thanks  to advocacy by you and like-thinking people across the state, Gov. Malloy has directed his administration to strive for the restoration of more normal herring and shad runs as soon as possible.  There is already a ban on fishing for river herring and shad in state waters. 

 

The next steps are that the recommendations of the Council will go to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in the next few weeks.  If the NMFS agrees, it will post regulations for public comment, probably in the fall.  We'll keep you posted. 

 

River Alliance is a member of the Herring Alliance supported by the very active Pew Environment Group, which keeps us posted.  (Thank you, Greg Wells at Pew.)   The NY Times did a major article on the Council's decision on July 3, 2012.  It emphasized the important collaboration between environmental groups, small-scale fishing fleets, and sports fishermen.  Here's a link.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/04/us/new-england-fishing-rules-aim-to-protect-herring.html

 

 Thank you all for your support, it was certainly a huge help for this cause.  We will be back to you.  Let us know if you have questions at this point. 

 

Sean Hutton

Margaret Miner

 

Rivers Alliance of Connecticut

7 West Street, POB 1797

Litchfield, CT 06759

Tel: 860-361-9349

Fax: 860-361-9341

Cell: 203-788-5161

http://www.riversalliance.org/

 

Serving all the waters of Connecticut

 

Contacts:

Margaret Miner

Rose Guimaraes