State environmental regulators have extended a ban on fishing river herring for another two years.
The action by the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection comes after last year’s low counts of river herring, which include alewives and blueback herring.
The prohibition applies to most of the state’s inland and marine waters and is now in effect through March 2017. Regulators first put the ban in place in 2002.
Annual counts have been disappointing since then, despite efforts to strategically transplant the fish, remove obsolete dams and build fishways to aid migration.
Three decades ago, 630,000 blueback herring were counted passing over the Holyoke Dam on the Connecticut River in Massachusetts. In 2006, the count fell as low 21. Last year, the count was 87, but statewide, DEEP’s data suggests the count was as low as ever, the agency said.
River herring are not sought after by many anglers for eating, but are an important food source for gamefish, osprey, bald eagles and other species, DEEP said.
Despite the low counts, the National Marine Fisheries Services ruled in 2013 against placing river herring on its official list of endangered species.
