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Some say New England herring at risk from trawlers

April 01, 2012

Some say New England herring at risk from trawlers
By Jay Lindsay
Associated Press
April 1st, 2012

BOSTON New England’s historic fishing industry doesn’t spare much of its romance for the herring.

The tiny fish is, at most, a foot long. The price per pound often won’t even buy 12 minutes at a Boston parking meter. Some people eat it pickled, but herring is mainly caught to become bait for more popular seafood, such as lobster.

The herring, though, is deeply important to fishermen and environmentalists, who are fighting to put greater restrictions on trawlers that pull up hundreds of thousands of pounds of herring at a time.

They argue that the large trawlers are depleting a species that’s a critical food for just about every prized commercial fish in the region, from cod to striped bass. The herring’s influence even extends to ocean tours, which depend on abundant herring to attract whales and birds to the ocean surface to feed and be seen.

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