Posted Friday September 26, 2008

 

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service will hold a public meeting to discuss river herring management on Monday, October 27 at 6pm at the Natural Resources Police Training Academy Conference Room at Matapeake, 306 Marine Academy Drive, Stevensville, MD 21666. All interested parties are invited to attend and give their views. Sign language interpreters and other appropriate accommodations will be provided upon request.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission is developing an amendment to its Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Shad and River Herring. It seeks input on proposed requirements for population and bycatch monitoring, as well as commercial and recreational management measures. The Draft Amendment has been developed in response to widespread concern regarding the decline of river herring stocks. While many populations of blueback and alewife herring, collectively known as river herring, are in decline or remain depressed, the lack of fishery-dependent and independent data makes it difficult to ascertain the status of river herring stocks coastwide. The Draft Amendment proposes mandatory data and bycatch monitoring provisions, as well as options to close fisheries by river system or establish a coastwide moratorium on the river herring fishery. Maryland biological information on the river herring will be presented.