Say Goodbye to Herring

Looks like herring in Alaska are on that all too familiar road:

Today the herring have become smaller and smaller. According to marine biologists, Pacific herring up to 18 inches have been recorded. But the Alaska herring have become smaller and smaller and now an eight-inch fish is considered "good sized." No one - biologist, politician or fisherman is venturing a guess as to the reason for today's smaller fish. In some ways it seems obvious. Perhaps not.

And today the wisdom and safety of the sac roe fishery is repeatedly questioned. There has been the argument that "A dead herring is a dead herring" regardless of the method of its harvest, bait or sac roe. At present, there is also a newer development: Perhaps the sac roe fishery will in time become a thing of the past on its own. Japan long ago fished its own herring populations to extinction.

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