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Herring Fishermen Denied More Haddock Bycatch

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) _ The New England Fishery Management Council will not allow Atlantic herring fishermen to exceed their limit for haddock bycatch this year.
 
    The council denied the request at a meeting Friday. Federal regulators say Atlantic herring fishermen who fish from mid-water trawl boats are on track this year to exceed their limit for incidental catch of haddock in Georges Bank. That would trigger rules that would effectively shut down the herring fishery.
 
    Many haddock fishermen have opposed raising the catch cap because they say it would contribute to the depletion of their own fishery.
 
    The management council's decision comes less than a month after the National Marine Fisheries Service said part of the Gulf of Maine's Atlantic herring fishery needed to be shut down for nearly a year.