Assessing Fisheries Management

Humans have been fishing in the Hudson River for well over 6,000 years. Since Europeans settled here, the Hudson’s fisheries have been harvested for subsistence, recreation, and commercial purposes. Populations of several Hudson fish species, such as American shad and tomcod, have declined in recent years. A few fish stocks, such as striped bass, are abundant. To maintain the rich natural bounty of the Hudson, fish stocks must be carefully studied and fishing must be properly managed.

Management of migratory fish species such as American shad, river herring, striped bass, American eel, rainbow smelt, and Atlantic sturgeon is coordinated by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), an interstate agency comprised of the 15 Atlantic coastal states. Resident species including smallmouth and largemouth bass, catfish, and white perch are managed exclusively by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

American Shad

1/4/2010: Riverkeeper submitted comments to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) supporting the closure of the Hudson River American shad fisheries and restrictions on American shad fishing in the Delaware River.
READ RIVERKEEPER’S FULL COMMENTS

On May 19, 2008, Riverkeeper submitted comments to the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Hudson River Fisheries Unit supporting the proposed rulemaking which would make permanent the Emergency American Shad Restrictions announced on March 14, 2008. In its letter, Riverkeeper applauded the DEC for acting quickly to enact the emergency regulations which placed restrictions on commercial fishing, including limits on certain types of fishing gear and on times and places where fishing is allowed. The DEC also implemented a catch-and-release-only season for recreational shad fishing.

Riverkeeper restated its recommendations submitted to the DEC in comments on January 31. Both sets of comments urge the agency to protect Hudson River shad by addressing all causes of their decline including habitat loss, offshore bycatch, power plants, and the commercial and recreational fisheries, while preserving the skills and culture of the Hudson River’s traditional commercial shad fishery which has existed since Dutch settlers arrived in the New World. Riverkeeper’s comments emphasized that placing restrictions on the commercial and recreational fisheries without resolving each and every one of the threats to American shad, would force New York State’s historic shad fishery into extinction, while failing to honestly address the causes of the population’s decline.

Riverkeeper’s comments called on the DEC to:

• Continue to monitor the health of the Hudson River’s shad population and regularly evaluate whether the restrictions on commercial and recreational fishing are sufficient to ensure the species’ recovery;

• Seek funding and support from the New York Ocean and Great Lakes Ecosystem Conservation Council to fund shad study and restoration efforts;

• Dedicate funding to further study reasons for the decline of Hudson River American shad, including funding to monitor and restore lost shad spawning grounds and to continue the Hudson River Estuary Monitoring Program;

• Lead the fight to ensure that the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) strictly regulates directed-fisheries such as the Delaware Bay, which catch Hudson River shad;

• Ban ocean bycatch of American shad in state waters, lobby neighboring states to ensure that bycatch of American shad is not legalized, and dedicate funding to study where ocean bycatch is occurring in order to enforce a ban on such bycatch; and finally,

• Mandate the installation of at least closed-cycle cooling at every Hudson River power plant and ensure that existing permit requirements are strengthened.

Atlantic Sturgeon

River Herring

On January 1, 2009, Riverkeeper submitted public comments on the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) Draft Amendment 2 to the Interstate Fishery Management Plan for Shad and River Herring (Amendment). Riverkeeper submitted comments as part of our ongoing participation in the ASMFC’s process of amending the coast-wide management plan for river herring. Alewife and blueback herring (known together as river herring) are both signature species in the Hudson River, which have been experiencing long term population declines. Riverkeeper’s comments follow those submitted in January, 2008 on the Amendment’s Public Information Document (PID), the first stage in the ASMFC’s amendment process.

Riverkeeper’s comments on the Draft Amendment commended the ASMFC for recognizing the importance of implementing strong measures to protect river herring along the Atlantic coast and called on them to:

• Require extensive reporting and monitoring programs in member states;

• Mandate the implementation of a comprehensive program to monitor and reduce bycatch;

• Coordinate at-sea and inshore fisheries’ bycatch reduction and monitoring programs on a coast-wide basis;

• Work with member states to implement habitat conservation and restoration measures and to address the effects of power plant and other water withdrawal intakes; and

• Mandate that individual states develop comprehensive management programs to reduce species mortality in commercial and recreational fisheries.

In addition to submitting comments directly to ASMFC Riverkeeper joined with over 100 other organizations, including many other Waterkeeper Alliance members along the east coast, in a letter to the ASMFC regarding the Draft Amendment. This letter praised the overall efforts of the ASMFC in recognizing the importance of protecting river herring while calling on them to increase bycatch observer coverage, identify and close bycatch “hotspots”, prohibit the dumping of catch by at-sea vessels, establish bycatch caps and reporting requirements, and address anthropogenic sources of species decline.