Herring In Need Of Protection?

More than 100 fishing, conservation, science and faith-based organizations signed a letter sent Tuesday to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce calling for emergency action to protect river herring caught offshore.

"River herring play an important role in the ecosystem as prey for predator fish, marine mammals and seabirds," Brooks Mountcastle, mid-Atlantic representative for the Marine Fish Conservation Network, said in a statement. "Failing to act would mean more than the loss of a species, but a loss of profound cultural and historical significance for many coastal communities."

The letter follows a May meeting by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Council, the governing body that monitors and regulates fisheries in 15 eastern states including New Jersey, in which members agreed to close all in-river herring fisheries by 2012 unless they are proven sustainable.

The ASMFC also called on the secretary to increase regulations on commercial fishing vessels that often accidentally catch river herring while trolling for other kinds of fish. This bycatch is substantial, the ASMFC and other groups contend, and does not allow the fish to return to the rivers where they spawn.