Herring blog
Find out how the decline of the herring population has impacted local fishermen.
Herring
Sea Herring Campaign
Atlantic herring are an absolutely vital resource -- the cornerstone of the New England ocean food web. Marine mammals like whales and dolphins and fish like striped bass, tuna, haddock and cod feed on sea herring and migrate to where this food source is most abundant. Fishermen use sea herring for bait. But a method of fishing called midwater trawling is causing a major decline in the Atlantic herring population and is harming other fish stocks in the process.
River Herring Campaign
Like their sea herring cousins, river herring have faced a sharp decline in recent years. While many states -- including Massachusetts -- forbid fishermen from catching river herring in order to protect the dwindling species, they are frequently picked up as bycatch of midwater trawlers in the ocean, where they are nearly indistinguishable from sea herring.
