The Department of Marine Resources manages the resources of the herring fishery. Coastal communities that are granted rights to these resources submit a harvest plan for DMR's approval. The towns must provide for a three-day non-fishing period each week during the spawning season. This typically starts 6 a.m. Thursday to 6 a.m. Sunday. It's not that the herring are watching the calendar during the spawning season, but that's when DMR has determined the time when the most fishing activity occurs. Towns must also provide annual reports of harvests to DMR or they will lose their exclusive fishing rights and forfeit them to state control.
River herring is a hidden resource that can provide profit and can contribute to the local economy.
If towns will take care of their local rivers, nature will provide the abundance it once did long before pollution and dams obstructed the natural order.
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