June 23, 2016 — PORTLAND, Maine — Federal regulators are considering a slight cut to commercial fishermen’s catch limit for Atlantic herring, a fish that is important both to the industry and the ocean’s food web.
The small fish gather in schools that can number in the millions, and are a critical food source for bigger fish, seals and whales. They also are important to humans as food and bait.
The National Marine Fisheries Service might reduce the herring catch limit by about 3 percent to slightly less than 105,000 metric tons. The limit was a little less than 108,000 metric tons for the 2013 to 2015 period; any new limit would apply to the years 2016 to 2018.
The proposal is up for public comment until July 21.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Portland Press Herald