Atlantic herring may have been the canary in the coal mine for the Atlantic fishery. From 2014 to 2021, the population in the Atlantic herring fishery collapsed 88%. The scoping document for Amendment 10 (link)to the Atlantic Herring Regulations blames the drop in populations on low recruitment, which has been going on for decades,” and they don’t understand it. But, they say, “Overfishing is not occurring.” This year, (2025) the Atlantic herring ACL is only 3% of what the harvest was only 12 years ago and there was essentially no herring fishery.
There is a video that discusses Ecological Reference Points for Menhaden (link). In this video, Professor David Chagaris discusses “Prey Switching”, and says that if menhaden are not available, the predator fish could switch to something else, like Atlantic herring. He also notes that there seems to be a correlation on the amount of switching and the populations, which we would predict since fish are opportunistic feeders. I don’t know if he knew at the time that Atlantic herring population had collapsed by 95%, which I think is possible due to “prey switching.”
The ASMFC has a Guide to Fisheries Science and Stock Assessment (link) explains how fish recruitment rate levels off or even declines as the species population increases beyond a certain point. The reason is that at a certain population level they approach the carrying capacity limits, that is mainly determined by the amount of food available. This is further compounded by “prey switching”, juveniles and adults, get consumed by other fish that would normally feed on forage fish.
Also, the ASMFC guide mentioned above explains that they take into account the role of Atlantic herring as forage by setting the allowable fishing mortality rate at 80% of the fishing mortality rate at Maximum Sustainable Yield, leaving 20% available for forage. Unfortunately, the predatory fish that eat the forage fish have a reputation for not following any rules.
These things mentioned above suggest that the collapse of the Atlantic herring population was caused by a low forage fish population. If this is true, then rebuilding the forage fish population would lead to the rebuilding of the Atlantic herring population.
Atlantic herring may have been the canary in the coal mine for the Atlantic fishery. From 2014 to 2021, the population in the Atlantic herring fishery collapsed 88%. The scoping document for Amendment 10 (link)to the Atlantic Herring Regulations blames the drop in populations on low recruitment, which has been going on for decades,” and they don’t understand it. But, they say, “Overfishing is not occurring.” This year, (2025) the Atlantic herring ACL is only 3% of what the harvest was only 12 years ago and there was essentially no herring fishery.
There is a video that discusses Ecological Reference Points for Menhaden (link). In this video, Professor David Chagaris discusses “Prey Switching”, and says that if menhaden are not available, the predator fish could switch to something else, like Atlantic herring. He also notes that there seems to be a correlation on the amount of switching and the populations, which we would predict since fish are opportunistic feeders. I don’t know if he knew at the time that Atlantic herring population had collapsed by 95%, which I think is possible due to “prey switching.”
The ASMFC has a Guide to Fisheries Science and Stock Assessment (link) explains how fish recruitment rate levels off or even declines as the species population increases beyond a certain point. The reason is that at a certain population level they approach the carrying capacity limits, that is mainly determined by the amount of food available. This is further compounded by “prey switching”, juveniles and adults, get consumed by other fish that would normally feed on forage fish.
Also, the ASMFC guide mentioned above explains that they take into account the role of Atlantic herring as forage by setting the allowable fishing mortality rate at 80% of the fishing mortality rate at Maximum Sustainable Yield, leaving 20% available for forage. Unfortunately, the predatory fish that eat the forage fish have a reputation for not following any rules.
These things mentioned above suggest that the collapse of the Atlantic herring population was caused by a low forage fish population. If this is true, then rebuilding the forage fish population would lead to the rebuilding of the Atlantic herring population.
The following website will line to a weekly report on Atlantic hering caught: Atlantic Herring Quota Monitoring.