Atlantic herring, a small fish known to school in the several billions, is a favorite bait of the lobster industry.
They’re easy to catch. Lobsters love to eat them. But federal regulators have cut the herring catch quota by 70 percent for this year, in response to projections of substantial declines in herring biomass.
Now Maine lobster fishermen and regulators are looking for alternatives to fill the gap. Some are fish that, with proper oversight, can potentially be imported into Maine. Others are expanded markets of existing alternatives that lobstermen already use.