September 14, 2018 — The Atlantic herring is a small, seemingly unremarkable fish that has distinguished itself through sheer numbers. When herring spawn, they can cover the ocean bottom in a carpet of eggs inches thick. Migrating schools of the fish can number in the billions and have been known to stretch miles wide.
But despite its prolific nature, there are growing concerns in some quarters about the state of the fish’s population, which, according to federal data, has been in decline for the last five years. Environmental advocates and some fishing groups worry that if herring is overfished, it could spell trouble for striped bass, tuna and a whole host of other species in Rhode Island and elsewhere along the Northeast coast that prey on it.
“If there’s no big stocks of herring to entice these other fish into Narragansett Bay, they may pass us by,” said Michael Jarbeau, baykeeper for Providence-based environmental group Save The Bay.
On Tuesday, the New England Fishery Management Council will decide on a new set of regulations known as Amendment 8 that could include restricting fishing areas for herring and could for the first time account for the fish’s place in the larger ecosystem.
The council’s Atlantic herring committee met last week and backed a less restrictive version of the rules out of concern that anything tighter would shut down the fishery for as long as three years as stocks recover. The full council may adopt the committee’s recommendation or go forward with any of a host of other options.