The New England Fishery Management Council recently made three important decisions at its meeting in Newport, Rhode Island regarding the management of the region’s herring fishery.
First, the council decided to generate a broad catch and bycatch monitoring program in 2010 that will provide data for determining the health of herring. To date, inadequate catch monitoring of the fleet has made it difficult to accurately predict population sizes and the rates at which herring are being fished.
Second, the council committed to protect spawning herring on Nantucket Shoals by adding this item into its upcoming work on the herring fishery management plan.