Fishermen on the west coast have now been banned from fishing for hundreds of species of fish. West coast fishery regulators implemented wide-spread policy changes for forage fish….the small fish the larger fish tend to feed on. The fish are in 7 broad categories: pacific saury, silversides, round and thread herring, pacific sand lance, osmerid smelts, and mesopelagic and pelagic squids. The vote by the Pacific Fishery Management Council does not rule out the future fishing of protected forage fish, but it does require that fishery managers show each fishery can be sustainably fished, before allowing fishermen to cast their nets.
