New Hampshire Fish and Game’s Marine Fisheries Division has
announced two additional days of closure to restrictions on the take of
Atlantic herring. Commercial fishermen currently are not allowed to land
Atlantic herring taken from Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission
Management Area 1A (in the western half of the Gulf of Maine) on Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays. The restriction applies from 12:01 a.m. on Fridays to
midnight on Sundays. Under the new restrictions, the closure will also be in
effect on Thursday, September 20, and Thursday, September 27, 2007, from
12:01 a.m. to midnight each day. These restrictions will remain in effect
until December 31, 2007, or until further amended.
The closure is in accordance with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries
Commission (ASMFC) Atlantic Herring Management Plan. One of the provisions
of the plan addresses the need to control “effort” (fishing days) in the
fishery to prevent commercial fishermen from exceeding the total allowable
catch for each management area and to prevent management areas from having
to be closed early.
The additional closure is intended to protect the Atlantic herring resource
and to ensure that the total allowable catch is not harvested before peak
market demands abate before late autumn. An exception to the rule is that
any vessel may land herring taken as an incidental catch in ASMFC Management
Area 1A, up to a maximum of 2,000 pounds.Â
For more information about the closure, call N.H. Fish and Game’s Region 3
office in Durham at (603) 868-1095.Â
The N.H. Fish and Game Department is the guardian of the state’s fish,
wildlife and marine resources and their habitats. The Department’s Marine
Fisheries Division is located in Durham, N.H. Visit N.H. Fish and Game at