Fly Rodding the Ocean State

Last night I was listening to WEEI on my way home and was very pleasantly suprised to hear a radio ad challenging Deval Patrick to remove the industrial trawlers from Massachusetts waters. This harvest is so thorough and therefore debilitating to the inshore fishery that it has caused commercial and recreational fisherman to join together in opposition.

This morning the good folks at RISAA shared this press release.

*Lawsuit Filed to Protect River Herring and Shad*

/*Agencies failed to prevent population decline of river herring and shad*/
Washington, D.C. --- Commercial and recreational fishermen are
challenging two government agencies for failing to protect river herring
and shad from being caught and killed by Atlantic industrial fisheries.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and the National Marine
Fisheries Michael FlahertyService both are required to take measures to
stem the decline of river herring and shad populations -- and have
failed to do so. Public interest law firm Earthjustice is representing
the Martha's Vineyard/Duke's County Commercial Fishermen's Association
and *RISAA Member Michael S. Flaherty* in the lawsuit.

"Our communities depend on a healthy and abundant fish supply for their
prosperity," said Warren Doty, Executive director of the Martha's
Vineyard/Dukes County Fishermen's Association. "The game of ping-pong
between the Commission and Fisheries Service -- where each agency points
their finger at the other to act and does nothing themselves -- has led
to the continued steep decline of river herring and shad. It's time for
these agencies to take action and develop a plan that will rebuild our
fish populations."

River herring are a critical component of the coastal ecosystem along
the Eastern seaboard, providing a significant source of food for a
variety of fish, birds and mammals. Since 1985 there has been over a 90
percent decline in river herring populations, according to recent data.
Shad is a separate fish species and similarly threatened. Both of these
fish populations have been decimated by the unregulated catch by
industrial midwater trawl fishermen. These industrial trawlers are up
to 165 feet long and can hold more than one million pounds of catch.
Though these ships attempt to catch sea herring and mackerel, they also
scoop up millions of river herring and shad as "bycatch," which are
either discarded dead or sold along with these other fish as lobster bait.

"Recreational fishermen have been doing our part for years to ensure
river herring populations have the chance to rebound," said* Mike
Flaherty* of Wareham, Massachusetts. "It's time to close the loopholes
and mandate the same from industry."

The lawsuit challenges both agencies for failure to conserve and manage
river herring and shad populations under the Magnuson-Stevens Act and
the Atlantic Coast Fisheries Cooperative Management Act. These laws are
in place to prevent overfishing, rebuild depleted stocks, establish
annual catch limits and accountability measures and minimize bycatch --
leftover fish usually killed and discarded.

The ASMFC is made up of state fisheries managers from the entire Eastern
seaboard whose authority for managing coastal fish species is primarily
exercised in state waters. NMFS is the federal agency charged with
managing our nation's ocean fish in federal waters -- typically those
more than three miles off the coast. Both agencies have done little to
nothing to managing the slaughter of river herring in federal waters or
to prevent the population collapse of river herring and shad. River
herring spawns in state waters but generally spends the majority of its
life in federal waters.

"We have an unregulated federal fishery for river herring and shad,"
said Roger Fleming, Earthjustice attorney. "We are calling on these
agencies to do what the law requires them to do -- conserve and manage
these fish. The time to act was yesterday."

"Midwater trawling for herring and mackerel is an unsustainable fishing
method that threatens all species of river herring, shad, groundfish,
and other stocks through overfishing and the disruption of the ocean
ecology," said Doty. "Midwater trawling undermines the viability of the
traditional, more sustainable fishing methods we support."