lets talk herring

[NIB]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

AFAIK there is no commercial fishery for blueback herring.

What is AFAIK ?

Is there a commercial fishery for ATLANTIC SEA HERRING?
I guess what ur tell me its the rec.fisherman takin to many.not the bycatch._Please.Where are the American Shad.They all swim the same basic waters.net em up put em in a can they all taste the same pickled.

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by NIB

What is AFAIK ?

Is there a commercial fishery for ATLANTIC SEA HERRING?
I guess what ur tell me its the rec.fisherman takin to many.not the bycatch._Please.Where are the American Shad.They all swim the same basic waters.net em up put em in a can they all taste the same pickled.

AFAIK=As far as I know.

Yes there is a commercial fishery for both sea herring and shad. NMFS says that by catch of river herring in the sea herring fishery is minimal. By catch of river herring in the shad fishey could be a problem, but I think the commercial shad fishery in New England is mostly gone now.

[Pete_G]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

AFAIK=As far as I know.

Yes there is a commercial fishery for both sea herring and shad. NMFS says that by catch of river herring in the sea herring fishery is minimal. By catch of river herring in the shad fishey could be a problem, but I think the commercial shad fishery in New England is mostly gone now.

FWIW, I lived on the Palmer River in Rehoboth most of my life, walking distance to the herring run and shad fishing areas. I moved South to Newport this year, but prior to that I've always had a REAL good sense of both the shad run and the herring runs on the river both because I fished it constantly and because I was a herring officer for the town for several years. So since I'm 28, we'll say I have a good 18 years or so of unscientific data in my head. The Palmer supports, as far as I know, the only American shad run in Narragansett Bay. IMO the size and quantity of those fish is as good as it ever was, maybe better. Yet the herring (both bluebacks and alewifes) are almost gone. You can stare at the ladder and the waterfall for hours and see nothing.

Not sure what the point of this is or what it indicates if anything, but it certainly supports the idea that there is little to no American Shad fishery if it is clearly healthy, at least in that river. If the shad were falling victim to the same sort of commercial fishing the herring are, I would be very aware of it.

[Offshore]

The Shad run on the Merrimack, which was second in size only to Connecticut only 10 years ago has been going down hill steadily since then and is a matter of serious concern to MDMF

[NIB]

The classic Shad run on the Delaware is nothing like it used to be.

[slapshot]

Originally Posted by MakoMike

AFAIK=As far as I know.

Yes there is a commercial fishery for both sea herring and shad. NMFS says that by catch of river herring in the sea herring fishery is minimal. By catch of river herring in the shad fishey could be a problem, but I think the commercial shad fishery in New England is mostly gone now.

Thats what they say, but they don't have the science to prove it. They only have observers on 2-3% of the vessels. That is not a respresentative sample. You couldn't go down to the ramp, ask 2-3 out of 100 fishermen what they caught and then multiply their catch rate by the other 97 fishermen. The NMFS admits that they need more observers, and they asked for a pile of money to do it last year. I don't know if they got the funding. I am guessing its a low priority.

[MakoMike]

Originally Posted by slapshot

Thats what they say, but they don't have the science to prove it. They only have observers on 2-3% of the vessels. That is not a respresentative sample. You couldn't go down to the ramp, ask 2-3 out of 100 fishermen what they caught and then multiply their catch rate by the other 97 fishermen. The NMFS admits that they need more observers, and they asked for a pile of money to do it last year. I don't know if they got the funding. I am guessing its a low priority.

2-3% can be a statistically valid sample, what percentage of the voting public do you think those presidential polls use? A small sample increases the margin for error (standard deviation) but even with a 2-3% sampling rate, all else being equal (i.e. times of year, fishing areas, etc) their current statistics do indicate little bycatch in the sea herring fishery. I'm not saying that figures are gospel, but even if they were double, it would indicate little bycatch in the sea herring fishery.