PEW ENVIRONMENT GROUP www.pewtrusts.org Herring Alliance
Photo Credit: ©davidhills.net Herring play a critical role in the marine food web, transferring energy from the plankton they consume to the many fish, mammals and birds that eat them.
conserving a linchpin of the sea The ocean waters of New England are able inshore resource, thereby weakening • Apportion herring trawling spatially and among the more diverse and productive in the entire marine food web of the region. temporally in order to minimize bycatch the world. They are home to whales, dolphins, It also may be responsible for the needless and avoid localized depletion; and porpoises, seals, an array of marine birds, destruction of other ocean species, such as • Fully monitor and minimize bycatch of and economically important fish such as whales, seals and fish that are caught and commercially and recreationally important tuna, striped bass, and Atlantic cod. All killed as unwanted bycatch in the large nets fish stocks as well as whales, seals, of these species prey on Atlantic herring, of these trawlers. dolphins and porpoises. a small fish that plays a critical role in the The Pew Environment Group is leading Atlantic herring is arguably the most marine food web. the Herring Alliance, a coalition of envi- important fish off the New England coast. Herring began a slow recovery in the ronmental and public interest organizations, This campaign aims to ensure that herring 1990s after foreign fishing fleets severely to reform the Atlantic herring fishery in continue to be an abundant keystone prey depleted their numbers in the 1970s. However, ways that will help protect the fishery and species in this important marine ecosystem. just as the herring began to recover, large the marine ecosystem. The goals of this midwater trawl vessels capable of operating campaign are to 24 hours a day began catching huge quanti- • Establish ecosystem-based catch limits ties for a foreign market. The industrial that leave sufficient herring in the ocean herring fleet threatens to deplete this valu- to sustain marine predators;
PEW ENVIRONMENT GROUP 1025 F Street NW, 9th Floor Contact: Peter Baker, [email protected] Washington, D.C. 20004-1409 T 202.552.2000 F 202.552.2299 February 2008