Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Anglers Conservation Network Wrongly Attacks NOAA for Determination on Alewife and Blueback Herring

June 24, 2019 — The following was released by the Garden State Seafood Association:

On Tuesday, June 18, 2019, NOAA announced they found that no populations of alewife or blueback herring (collectively referred to as “river herring”), or any of the four alewife distinct population segments (DPS) and three blueback DPSs along the east coast of the United States were either in danger of extinction nor likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. Therefore, they determined that listing any of those species under the Endangered Species Act as either threatened or endangered is not warranted at this time.

Almost immediately, the Anglers Conservation Network responded on Facebook, asking the hypothetical question, “What do you do when the federal agency in charge of sustainability fails to not only recognize, name and correctly manage a vital forage fish? [sic].”

They accused NOAA of failing “to do its duty” and of letting “commercial fishing lobbyists carry the day.” They also asked their followers and readers to “please learn more about what the current administration is doing to America.”

This determination had nothing to do with any appointees of the Trump Administration. For the status review of alewife and blueback herring, NOAA formed a team composed of career scientists from NOAA Fisheries, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. The team members have scientific expertise in river herring biology/ecology and/or expertise in population ecology or fisheries management. Their report was reviewed by three independent external experts and by NOAA Fisheries staff.

The team members are:

  • Robert Adams – New York Department of Environmental Conservation
  • Michael Bailey – USFWS, Central New England Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office
  • Ruth Haas-Castro – NOAA Fisheries, Northeast Fisheries Science Center
  • Kiersten Curti – NOAA Fisheries, Northeast Fisheries Science Center
  • Ben Gahagan – Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries
  • Ed Hale – Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife
  • Tara Trinko Lake – NOAA Fisheries, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office
  • Bill Post – South Carolina Department of Natural Resources

Not a single team member is an appointee of the Trump Administration. The team members were not contacted by, nor did they interact with, “commercial fishing lobbyists” during their work on the determination. Their work was rigorous, with the final report totaling 167 pages.

The Anglers Conservation Network has a long history of opposing legal, well-managed U.S. forage fisheries. In a case argued by Roger M. Fleming of EarthJustice that failed on appeal in 2016, the Angler’s Conservation Network sued then Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, stating that NOAA unlawfully neglected to manage stocks of river herring and shad in the Atlantic Ocean from New York to North Carolina. The court found that NOAA rationally considered the status of river herring stocks, the fact that they are managed by the Atlantic coastal states where these fish breed, and greatest threats to their populations, including dams and barriers.

NOAA has created a program of bycatch caps in the Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries to help conserve the stock. Meanwhile, the federal government continues to work with its partners in the states to improve habitat for these stocks. Far from “fail[ing] to do its duty,” as Anglers Conservation Network claims, NOAA has been proactive in helping to restore these important stocks.

Read the full release here

River herring will not be added to endangered species list

June 19, 2019 — The federal government says two species of herring are not at risk of going extinct, and will not be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the government has finished a review of the status of alewife and blueback herring and decided against designating the fish as endangered or threatened.

The fish live on the East Coast and are an important piece of the food chain.

On Cape Ann, the river herring return to the fish run next the West Gloucester water treatment plant off Essex Avenue from the Atlantic Ocean by way of the Little River in the spring. From the river, the alewives swim to the Lily Pond spawning area to begin another life cycle for the important species.

The fish are counted each spring, usually about 2,000, in what is the largest visual count by volunteers in the state.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Announces Determination Not to List Alewife or Blueback Herring Under the Endangered Species Act at This Time

June 18, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

As part of our joint responsibility with U.S Fish and Wildlife Service for implementing the Endangered Species Act, we review whether species require protections under the Act.

We have completed a comprehensive status review and found a low risk of extinction for alewife and blueback herring throughout their range as well as for four alewife distinct population segments (DPS) and three blueback DPSs along the east coast of the United States.

After careful review of the status of both these species and of the identified DPSs, we have determined that listing alewife or blueback herring, or any of the seven identified DPSs under the Endangered Species Act as either threatened or endangered is not warranted at this time.

While river herring have declined from historical numbers, recent fisheries management efforts in place at the federal and state levels help to reduce the risks from fishing mortality for these species. Although some areas within the range continue to struggle, robust populations of these broadly distributed species are found in other portions of their ranges, with some areas supporting populations in the millions or hundreds of thousands.

With continued management and additional efforts to improve habitat connectivity, populations in areas of the range that are at low levels may also see improvements in the future.

Find Out More

Read the Listing Decision and download the Status Review Report

Find out how we’re reopening rivers for fish migration, read a recent story about native fish returning to a Massachusetts river after nearly 200 years, and get the latest on a recently completed river restoration in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Read the full release here

River Herring May Be Added to Endangered Species List

June 14, 2019 — A decision to add two species of river herring to the federal endangered species list is due from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) later this month, and it could have significant implications for southeastern New England.

Alewives and blueback herring, collectively called river herring, were once abundant in rivers and nearshore waters from Canada to South Carolina, but dams, climate change, and overfishing have contributed to their decline by as much as 98 percent.

“Historically, they used all the big and small rivers on the entire Atlantic Seaboard,” said Erica Fuller, senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, who has been advocating for increased management of the species for years. “They were the fish that fed the settlers; they were everywhere. There’s even a story of General Washington feeding the troops with alewives.”

But, she added, the species have been at historic lows for decades.

Read the full story at EcoRI

Request for Information: NOAA Fisheries Announces River Herring Status Review

August 15, 2017 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

NOAA Fisheries is initiating a new status review of alewife and blueback herring. In a status review, we evaluate the best scientific and commercial data available on the current status of the species. We use these reviews to determine whether listing under the Endangered Species Act is warranted.

Through this announcement, we are requesting submission of information on alewife and blueback herring rangewide, including any information on the status, threats, and recovery of the species that has become available since the previous listing determinations in 2013.

Please submit your information by October 16, 2017, either through the e-Rulemaking portal or by mail to:

Tara Trinko Lake

NOAA Fisheries Greater Atlantic Region

55 Great Republic Drive

Gloucester, MA 01930

Stock Assessment Update Indicates River Herring Remain Depleted on a Coastwide Basis Though Improvements Have Occurred in Several River Systems

August 4, 2017 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s Shad and River Herring Management Board reviewed the results of the 2017 River Herring Assessment Update, which indicates river herring remain depleted and at near historic lows on a coastwide basis. The “depleted” determination was used instead of “overfished” and “overfishing” because many factors, not just directed and incidental fishing, are contributing to the low abundance of river herring.

Alewife and blueback herring (collectively referred to as river herring) are anadromous species, spending the majority of their life at sea and returning to their natal streams to spawn. While at sea, mixing is believed to occur among multiple river-specific stocks and the incidental catch of river herring in non-targeted ocean fisheries is known to include both immature and mature fish.

The stock assessment update applied the same approaches used in the previous benchmark stock assessment with the incorporation of additional years of data (2011-2015). Of the 54 river herring stocks for which data were available, 16 experienced increasing abundance trends, 2 experienced decreasing abundance trends, 8 experienced stable abundance, 10 experienced no discernible trends in abundance due to high variability, and 18 did not have enough data to assess recent abundance trends (see Table 1, below).

While status on a coastwide basis remains unchanged, there are some positive signs of improvement for some river systems, with increasing abundance trends for a number of rivers in the Mid-Atlantic throughout New England region. While abundance in these river systems are still at low levels, dam removals and improvements to fish passage have had a positive impact on run returns. Since the completion of the 2012 assessment, NOAA Fisheries in partnership with the Commission have worked to provide state and local agencies with restoration project funding, leading to dam removals and fish passage improvement projects.

River herring are managed through Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Shad and River Herring, with the goal of conserving and protecting river herring along the coast. The Amendment prohibited state waters commercial and recreational fisheries beginning January 1, 2012, unless a state or jurisdiction had a Sustainable Fishery Management Plan (SFMP) approved by the Board. SFMPs must clearly demonstrate that the state’s or jurisdiction’s river herring fisheries meet sustainability targets which must be achieved and maintained. Amendment 2 also required states to implement fisheries-dependent and independent monitoring programs, and contains recommendations to member states and jurisdictions to conserve, restore, and protect critical river herring habitat. As of June 1, 2017, the Shad and River Herring Management Board approved sustainable fishery management plans for Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, and South Carolina. Upon receiving the results of the Stock Assessment Update, the Board did not take any management action at this time.

For a more detailed overview of the River Herring Stock Assessment Update go here –http://www.asmfc.org/uploads/file/598371e1RiverHerringAssessmentUpdateOverview_Aug2017.pdf.  The Overview is intended to aid media and interested stakeholders in better understanding the Commission’s stock assessment results and process.  The River Herring Stock Assessment Update will be available on the Commission website, www.asmfc.org, on the Shad and River Herring webpage under stock assessment reports. For more information, please contact Kirby Rootes-Murdy, Senior Fishery Management Coordinator, at krootes-murdy@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.        

MASSACHUSETTS: All You Need To Know About Cape Cod Herring Runs

May 8, 2017 — For many Cape Cod residents, it’s not spring unless the herring are swimming up local rivers, en route to their summer spawning areas.

These two species of fish, Alewives and Blueback Herring, swarm the Cape’s streams and rivers from hundreds of miles away in the Atlantic Ocean each spring. Amazingly, each individual returns to breed in the same freshwater bodies in which it was born.

Dedicated Herring Counters keep track of them, but the spectacle is seen by all who pay the runs a visit during peak season in April and May.

When to See Herring on Cape Cod

The rest of Eastern Massachusetts often has herring still in migration through mid-June, but on Cape Cod, you’ll see most of them shuffle through by mid-May. They spend the summers in our water bodies, and then head back to sea before autumn.

When driving near rivers and streams, keep an eye out for frenzied seagulls. That’s a clue that herring are running. Water temperature is a tell, also. The fish really crank into gear at 50 degrees.

Cape Cod Herring Run Locations

Monument River Fishway, Bourne – A critical spot for herring, since the groups which flock up this river system are one of the most productive in Massachusetts.

Santuit Pond Fish Ladder – A dam completed in 2013 separates Santuit Pond from the river of the same name at the Santuit Pond Preserve, Mashpee.

Route 130 Herring Run – Not far from the Santuit Pond Ladder, the Rt. 130 ladder next to the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian Museum is easily accessible.

Eastham Herring Run – Nestled on the aptly-named Herring Brook Road near Bridge Pond Drive.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Federal agency must revisit listing for blueback herring

March 27, 2017 — WASHINGTON — A federal judge has ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to revisit a decision not to list the blueback herring as a threatened species.

In a ruling Saturday, a District of Columbia judge said officials failed to offer a rational connection between the facts and two essential conclusions, and also failed to consider other aspects of the issue.

Blueback herring live along the Atlantic coast. They are born in inland rivers, spend most of their adult lives at sea, then return to rivers each spring to spawn.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Maine Public Radio

MAINE: Taking Down Dams and Letting the Fish Flow

October 24, 2016 — BANGOR, Maine — Joseph Zydlewski, a research biologist with the Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit of the United States Geological Survey, drifted in a boat on the Penobscot River, listening to a crackling radio receiver. The staccato clicks told him that one of the shad that his team had outfitted with a transmitter was swimming somewhere below.

Shad, alewives, blueback herring and other migratory fish once were plentiful on the Penobscot. “Seven thousand shad and one hundred barrels of alewives were taken at one haul of the seine,” in May 1827, according to one historian.

Three enormous dams erected in the Penobscot, starting in the 1830s, changed all that, preventing migratory fish from reaching their breeding grounds. The populations all but collapsed.

But two of the dams were razed in 2012 and 2013, and since then, fish have been rushing back into the Penobscot, Maine’s largest river.

“Now all of a sudden you are pulling the cork plug and giving shad access to a truckload of good habitat,” Dr. Zydlewski said. Nearly 8,000 shad have swum upstream this year — and it’s not just shad.

More than 500 Atlantic salmon have made the trip, along with nearly two million alewives, countless baby eels, thousands of mature sea lamprey and dozens of white perch and brook trout. Striped bass are feeding a dozen miles above Bangor in waters closed to them for more than a century.

Nationwide, dam removals are gaining traction. Four dams are slated for removal from the Klamath River alone in California and Oregon by 2020.

Just a few of these removals have occurred on such large rivers, which play an outsize role in coastal ecosystems. But the lessons are the same everywhere: Unplug the rivers, and the fish will return.

Read the full story at the New York Times

Case for Shad & Herring Rules Circles the Drain

January 7, 2015 — (CN) – The D.C. Circuit cut the line on a case accusing the government of failing to protect ocean fish that feed New York and New Jersey eagles and striped bass.

Led by the New Jersey-based Anglers Conservation Network and its founder, Capt. Paul Eidman, the case centers on four dwindling stocks of fish – alewife, blueback herring, American shad and hickory shad – that school in the Atlantic Ocean from New York to North Carolina.

As those fish migrate up rivers during their annual spawning in the spring, they are prey for bald eagles, ospreys and other birds, like cormorants and gulls, as well as for other fish at sea and for striped bass making their annual spawning run into many of the same rivers.

The case at hand contends that there are even fewer river herrings and shads available for bigger species on the food chain, thanks to a 2013 inaction by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, one of eight established by the 1976 Fishery Conservation Act, or Magnuson-Stevens Act.

That year, the council was considering adopting Amendment 15 to add river herring and shad to the 1983 Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan.

Rather than approving the amendment, however, the council voted 10-9 to table the issue for three years while a working group studied the fish further.

The plaintiffs say this decision violated the Magnuson-Stevens Act, but U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler dismissed the complaint on Sept. 30, 2014.

A three-judge panel with the D.C. Circuit affirmed Tuesday.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service