The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens announced new regulations for Hudson River herring, often used as bait by those hoping to lure striped bass. River herring (alewife and blueback herring) spend most of their life in the ocean but return to the Hudson to spawn. "River herring are part of New York's native fauna and need to be more intensively managed to provide long-term, sustainable populations," said Martens. "These unique fish are important to New York's waters and many New Yorkers enjoy their return to tidal waters each spring." The new rules:
• Establish a recreational open season and a daily creel limit.
• Permit angling only (e.g. no nets) in the tributaries and embayments.
• Reduce the size of allowable nets in the Hudson River proper for both recreational and commerical fishers.
• Require charter boats to register with the DEC to be eligible for a special boat creel limit, and increases monthly reporting requirements for their catches..
The list of waters where the harvest of river herring is prohibited are: the Delaware River and its tributaries, all streams in Bronx, Kings, Manhattan, Nassau, Richmond, Suffolk, and Queens counties, and Westchester County streams that are tributary to the East River or Long Island Sound. The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), a cooperative interstate fisheries management organization, of which New York State is a member, recently confirmed that coast- wide river herring stocks are depleted. The blockage of rivers by dams, habitat degradation and overfishing led to the depletion of the river herring stocks along the Atlantic coast. For additional information about DEC Marine Resources- Hudson River Fisheries programs, visit http://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/76525.html or contact DEC's Bureau of Marine Resources at 845-256-3071 or by email at r3hrf@gw.dec.state.ny.us.