FYI
Where have all the herring gone?
Link -Times Union
Population decline in bait fish could force ban, switch to artificial lures for striper catch
By
BRIAN NEARING Staff writer
ALBANY - One of the rites of early spring fishing on the Hudson River is the run of striped bass, which come up from the Atlantic Ocean to spawn. A favorite bait for catching stripers is herring, a smaller fish that also comes from the ocean to spawn.
Now, a federal fishing commission, concerned that herring numbers along the East Coast are plummeting, has ordered New York and 14 other coastal states to limit or ban herring fishing by 2012 unless it can be proved that fish numbers locally are holding steady.
Some fishermen are worried that they may have to switch to less effective lures or other bait, but conservationists said something must be done to stem the decline of what is an important part of the food chain for larger fish.
In addition to being a bait fish, herring is used in many cat foods and is a source of omega-3 fatty acids, found in popular health supplements such as fish oil.
"Some areas have gone from a lot of herring to almost no herring in a big hurry," said Kathy Hattala, a fisheries biologist with the Bureau of Marine Resources at the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
After the fish began to vanish, Connecticut banned herring fishing in 2005, followed by Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In New York, there are no limits on amount of herring that can be taken.
A recent study found that blueback herring, one of the two herring types in the Hudson, are at about 1 percent of levels found in 1950, said David Strayer, a freshwater ecologist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, Dutchess County. "Herring are coming close to flatline," he said.
Last year, the federal Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission ordered all 15 coastal states to prove herring populations were steady, or impose restrictions on it by 2012.
Several factors are combining to reduce herring numbers, including overfishing both on rivers and in the ocean, and the invasion of the Hudson in 1992 by zebra mussels, which consume microscopic plankton that is food for the herring, said Hattala.
Over the last two decades, the herring that return to the Hudson to spawn have been getting smaller and younger on average. The average fish, once about 11 inches, now about 9 inches, according to DEC data. Smaller fish produce fewer offspring, Hattala said.
After hatching in late spring, young herring remain in the river until the end of the summer, before venturing into the ocean. If the herring survive for three years or so, the fish will return to the Hudson to spawn, and the cycle repeats.
"We cannot control the mussels, and the weather conditions and flow in the ocean, but we can control the fishing, which will buy us some time to figure out these other things," said Hattala. "We want to know what the fishermen can live with."
At Coeymans Landing on the river in Albany County, Preston Lightsey has run a charter fishing business for a dozen years, and fished the river for about 30 years. He hasn't seen a decline, but admits he is most familiar with his section of the river.
Herring is bait, but a lot of people also fish for herring to eat. You can smoke them, pickle them," said Lightsey, owner of a 20-foot charter boat outfitted for striper fishing. "In this area, there are tons of herring. You can see them at the edge of the river, in the rocks."
Lightsey said if herring were banned, he could switch to artificial lures, which are not as effective at attracting stripers.
Another commercial fisherman, Joe DeMarco, owner of Upstate Charters, said, "I've been fishing the upper Hudson River, from the Troy dam to the Port of Albany, for over 25 years. There are more herring now than there ever was."
But, he added, a state limit on herring would only enhance the future of the fishery.
Another skipper says he has heard observations of the decline. John Lipscomb has run a water quality inspection boat for Hudson Riverkeeper, an environmental group, for 10 years.
He's met lock keepers along the Erie Canal system who told him that they've seen the decline. Herring are able to run through canal locks going upriver on the Mohawk much more easily than the return downriver, when they often get sucked into the locks' mechanical works. "Lock keepers tell me that a few decades ago, there would be dead and injured herring floating on the surface near the locks, so many that you could smell them. Now they are not seeing that," Lipscomb said