Roger Fleming is a Maine-based lawyer with Earthjustice, which is challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service and the New England Fishery Management Council, saying they neglected to add adequate protections for the species in a recent amendment to law.

"The catch limits are too high for Atlantic herring and they've done nothing to protect river herring," says Fleming, who is representing several parties including a charter boat captain and the Ocean River Institute.

Fleming says pollution and dams have led to the depletion of four species of river herring, including alewife and shad. The other problem comes when river herring swim out to sea.

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