Fishermen and River Herring Advocates Challenge Latest Herring Plan

Fishermen and River Herring Advocates Challenge Latest Herring Plan

National Marine Fisheries Service fails to take steps necessary to prevent the decline of sea herring, river herring, and shad populations.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the New England Fishery Management Council are required under recent law changes to take measures to stem the decline of sea herring, river herring, and shad populations – but has failed to do so. Public interest law firm Earthjustice is representing recreational fishing advocate Michael S. Flaherty, charter boat Captain Alan A. Hastbacka, and the Ocean River Institute in the lawsuit.

“Federal Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries are being decimated by midwater trawlers that continue to indiscriminately scoop up our severely depleted river herring populations as senseless bycatch,” said Rob Moir of the Ocean River Institute. “Our rivers and our oceans are inextricably connected so when river herring migrate from rivers to spend seven years in the Gulf of Maine the impacts of these particular mega-midwater trawlers are felt most acutely both at sea and later in our watersheds when they fail to return.”

ORI is an active member of the Herring Alliance, a coalition of non-profit conservation and environmental organizations working to reform New England’s Atlantic herring fishery.  Many of ORI’s members fish, boat, study, swim and otherwise use and enjoy New England’s ocean and river waters.  The protection and restoration of river herring, shad, and Atlantic herring, and the many predator species these fish support, is vital to the continued use and enjoyment of these waters by ORI members.  Members of ORI include fishermen, scientists, educators, photographers and others who are directly affected by NMFS’s failure to address the at-sea catch of river herring and shad in the Atlantic herring fishery, and the failure to set science-based catch limits for Atlantic herring sufficient to help ensure healthy and abundant populations of fish, mammal, sea birds, and other animals that depend upon herring as prey.  Unless the relief sought in this complaint is granted, these interests in healthy and sustainable populations of Atlantic herring, river herring, and shad will continue to be adversely affected and irreparably harmed by the Defendants’ unlawful failure to perform its duties required by the Magnuson-Stevens Act, NEPA, and the APA.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Atlantic (sea) herring, river herring and shad are critical components of the ocean and coastal ecosystem, providing a significant source of food for a variety of commercially valuable fish like cod, sought after sport fish like striped bass and tuna, and countless birds and mammals. Since 1985 there has been over a 90 percent decline in river herring populations, according to recent data. Shad is a separate fish species and similarly threatened. The most recent data from NMFS also shows there is new cause for concern about sea herring populations as well, especially those closer to shore. All of these fish populations have been hit hard by the emergence in recent years of an industrial midwater trawl fishing fleet that remains severely under-regulated. These industrial trawlers are up to 165 feet long and have the power to catch an entire run of river herring with a single haul of a net. When sea herring are detected, these ships often descend in packs and can strip mine an entire section of the ocean of fish – including river herring, shad and other species − in a matter of hours.

NMFS is the federal agency charged with managing our nation’s ocean fish in federal waters – typically those more than three miles off the coast − in accordance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act. River herring and shad spawn in state waters but generally spend the majority of their lives in federal waters.

In September Earthjustice filed a lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission seeking development of a federal fishery management plan that would protect and help restore river herring and shad populations.

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