Members of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head are asking federal regulators to help restore the river herring, a forage fish they said is vital to the regional food chain.
A statewide moratorium on catching river herring remains in place but offshore commercial fishing trawlers continue to net the fish as bycatch.
Andrew Jacobs, lab manager for the tribe, said the herring’s decline has affected both economic and cultural practices.
“No one really recognizes what’s happening offshore because they don’t see it,” Jacobs explained. “But what we’re feeling is the effects of that fishing and we’re seeing it in our river herring population dwindling, year after year.”
The New England Fisheries Management Council is developing new management plans for forage fish, with a goal of improving river herring conservation. Jacobs stressed it is important to know where disproportionate bycatch is taking place and where increased monitoring is needed.
Nearly all respondents to the Council’s recent public comment period backed further actions to ensure greater security of forage fish stock, including populations of menhaden and Atlantic herring. Anglers have asked regulators to reestablish a 12-mile offshore buffer zone for large commercial trawlers.
Jaclyn Higgins, forage fish program manager for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said while recent assessments of forage stock sound bleak, she’s optimistic new management strategies will help.
“We really want to make sure we use all of the information that we have to move this ecosystem-based management framework forward and improve the models,” Higgins urged. “Improve what we have, and not stay stagnant with the status quo.”
Higgins pointed out increased data collection and research could also lead to more regionally specific measures to better protect local fisheries. She added the goal is to pinpoint what kinds of harvest restrictions are needed to ensure all entities can access forage fish, or what she called a vital public resource.
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