February 9, 2021 — New Atlantic herring protections announced last month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) will take effect on Wednesday.
The regulations will limit the annual catch levels for the commercial herring industry. It will also end the use of giant trawls in nearshore waters from New England to the Canadian border.
The new rules are expected to benefit the Atlantic puffin which was once on the brink of local extinction because of overhunting.
Don Lyons, the director of conservation science at the National Audubon Society’s Seabird Institute, says Maine could see more fishing regulations like this in the future.