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Commercial Fisheries News
Volume 34 Number 12
August 2007
RI issues emergency menhaden regs
PROVIDENCE, RI – On July 2, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM) filed emergency regulations effective immediately to set a possession limit of 75,000 pounds of menhaden (pogies) per purse seine vessel per day “whether fishing or transiting Rhode Island waters.”
The emergency regulations require purse seiners to give DEM advance notice of intent to fish or transit by calling DEM’s enforcement office at (401) 222-3070. Purse seiners are also required to provide daily landings reports.
According to DEM, an estimated 8 million pounds of menhaden migrated into Narragansett Bay waters through June. However, state scientists want to keep at least 4 million pounds in the water to “maintain bay health” and to provide a forage base for other species, including striped bass.
“If more than two million pounds are harvested, there will be an adverse impact upon the menhaden fishery and the ecosystems that support it,” DEM said.
At press time in mid-July, the state Assembly, which was in recess, had yet to act on controversial bills to ban menhaden purse seining in Narragansett Bay. /cfn/
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