Local fishermen have requested that Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke impose an emergency action on the herring fleet currently fishing in waters off Cape Cod.
The measure would require federal fishery observers on every boat and that no catch be dumped overboard unless it has been sampled by those observers.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is working on a similar set of regulations, but local fishermen are worried the herring boats could catch a lot of fish that are currently protected in closed areas before that takes effect.
“They could be catching a bunch of haddock in there right now,” said Tom Rudolph, the director of the Cape Cod Commercial Hook Fishermen’s Association’s herring campaign. Herring vessels use large nets and catch a lot of fish per tow. Even a small amount of fish other than herring (bycatch) could result in large numbers of a protected fish being killed.