Quote:
|
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.
Threaded Mode