U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe has come to the defense of New England’s herring industry, which faces drastic cuts in next year’s allowable catch, triggered by what she describes as "woefully" outdated scientific data.
In a letter dated Wednesday, the Maine Republican urged Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, to quickly authorize a benchmark assessment of the herring stock to reduce the degree of uncertainty that scientists have acknowledged is behind the looming 50 percent reduction in future herring catches.
Herring is not overfished, or subject to overfishing, but the New England Fishery Management Council’s Science and Statistical Committee has identified a troubling "retrospective pattern" in runs of a computer model used to profile the stock.
Read the complete story at The Gloucester Daily Times.
See also: ‘Surreal’ cuts in herring catch.