ELLSWORTH — In a court decision late last Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler found that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) failed to take required action to address the catch of severely depleted populations of Atlantic river herring and shad populations by the New England industrial herring fleet.
The court found that the federal Magnuson Act directs that any Fisheries Management Plan approved by NMFS must protect all stocks that “require conservation and management” and that the fisheries service may not unreasonably delay such decisions. The court also found that the fisheries service failed to minimize bycatch in the herring fishery.
Atlantic (sea) herring, river herring and shad are critical components of the ocean and coastal ecosystem. Often referred to as “forage fish,” they are the most significant source of food for a variety of commercially valuable fish such as cod, striped bass and tuna and countless birds and mammals. Since 1985, there has been a decline of more than 90 percent in river herring populations. Shad is a separate fish species and similarly threatened.
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