Rhode Island Sound Herring

[goosefish]

The day of the easterly blow, i was down on Hazard Ave. checking things out. The herring fleet is in town. Four boats were pair trawling, big boats 120' or so, towing fast, right off the rocks. There were also five boats that weren't pair trawling. That's ten boats all working from Beavertail to Bass Rock Road, a small area for boats of this size. It's a hot topic right now: should we be allowing the harvest of a forage species at these levels?
The Canadians don't think the herring biomas is at the levels the US feels they are; consequently the Canadians have reduced the harvest and the US has increased the harvest. And as we know the herring don't stop at the Hague Line in the late summer but keep on swimming right on through, where the US herring fleet happily targets them. The fleet then follows the herring around the Gulf of Maine, George's, the Nantucket Shoals, and then down into Rhode Island Sound. I know that the tuna seaon this year in the Gulf of Maine was not good; and the fingers are pointing at the lack of forage fish to keep the tuna in town. I don't no where I'm going with this thread, it's just an observation. It was, however, interesting watching the boats work, man they tow the net fast. And when they weren't towing they were steaming around searching, and i could picture the captain's face glued to the side-scanning-sonar screen looking for that soild red target: "OK boys lets set. We're on the meat."