Local Over Federal Action on Fish Protection
by Laurie Schreiber
Senator Scott Brown, D-Massachusetts spoke at the fishermen's United We Fish demonstration for regulatory reforms on March 21, 2012 in Washington, DC . Brown addressed enforcement reforms citing a $300,000 yacht (pictured right) purchased by NOAA enforcement. The crowd was smaller than the March 2010 demonstration. Questions about the New England cod assessment and drastic quota cuts dominate the news in the northeast. That story continues to evolve amid charges of flawed science and claims of an imminent crash of the cod stocks. ©Photo by Sam Murfitt
Numerous initiatives are under way along the coast of Maine to improve fish passages for alewives and blueback herring—collectively called “river herring”—which migrate yearly between the inland’s fresh water bodies and the ocean.
Further assistance for bettering the status of river herring stocks is being sought through a petition before the U.S. Department of Commerce, to list river herring as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
But the Alewife Harvesters of Maine (AHM), which supports local initiatives to improve fishways, said it opposes the petition, which was filed by the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a national, non-profit environmental organization that works to improve the management of marine and estuarine resources.
