News 2019: SMAST awarded funds for sustainable fisheries project

The joint project focuses on river herring catch reduction.

The New England Fishery Management Council and NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center have announced that the Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside (RSA) Program will continue to support the joint SMAST and Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries project focused on maintaining and expanding bycatch avoidance strategies.

The project aims to sustain, improve, and evaluate portside sampling and river herring incidental catch reduction in the Atlantic herring midwater trawl fishery. Scientists use near-real-time communications to disseminate the reported information fleet-wide, which helps fishermen avoid areas where they are likely to catch river herring erroneously.

Since 2010, SMAST and the Division of Marine Fisheries have worked collaboratively with the midwater trawl fleet to assist in reducing river herring incidental catch. 

Read the press release.