This week on TalkingFish.org: the third part in an interview series with a NOAA fisheries biologist Mike Palmer; CLF filed a lawsuit against the EPA to restore alewives to the St. Croix River; and a weekly roundup of interesting fish news.

Last week, CLF filed a lawsuit against the EPA and Curtis Spalding, EPA Regional Administrator, Region 1. (You can find a copy of the suit here, and copy of the press release here.) I want to take a moment to explain why this lawsuit is important. The alewife is a critical “keystone” species in marine and fresh waters – it is an important source of food for many fish and marine mammals and for numerous birds.  The alewife is a native fish to many Maine rivers and is anadromous, meaning it starts its life in freshwater ponds and lakes, migrates down river to the ocean where it spends most of its life and then returns to its native waters to spawn. As on many Maine rivers, alewives on the St. read more…

The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) today filed a law suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to restore alewives, a key forage and bait fish, to the St. Croix River. The suit alleges that the EPA failed to review changes to a Maine law that blocks passage to 98% of alewives’ natural, available habitat on the St. Croix as they are required to do under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The suit further alleges that as a result of this unsubstantiated obstruction, the Maine legislature has intentionally and effectively changed the fundamental water quality standards of the St. Croix River, and that the EPA failed to fulfill its legal obligations to review and reject that change.

A listing of recent posts on TalkingFish.org. This week: an interview with Chef Jeremy Sewall of Lineage, Island Creek Oyster Bar, and Eastern Standard; a post about upcoming river herring runs; and a roundup of this week’s fish stories in the news.

Alewife and blueback herring, collectively known as “river herring,” are a linchpin of the Atlantic ecosystem and key prey species for countless marine and freshwater animals. But today, where millions of these fish once swam, they now number in the thousands, or even mere hundreds. The National Marine Fisheries Service agreed that a “threatened” listing under the Endangered Species Act may be warranted for river herring – click here to send your comments to NMFS and ask them to conduct a comprehensive, scientifically-sound review of the status of river herring and save this important fish.

Catch the latest news from Talking Fish, the blog brought to you by CLF and others that is focused on the scientific, financial and social aspects at work in New England’s fisheries.

Catch the latest news from Talking Fish, the blog brought to you by CLF and others that is focused on the scientific, financial and social aspects at work in New England’s fisheries.