The Court will grant Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and deny the Service’s cross-motion for summary judgment. The Court will, accordingly, vacate the Listing Decision with respect to blueback herring and will remand this matter to the Service for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. A separate order will issue. /s/ Randolph D. Moss RANDOLPH D. MOSS United States District Judge.

This matter is REMANDED to the National Marine Fisheries Service for further proceedings consistent with the Court’s Memorandum Opinion

Earthjustice and NRDC case leads to federal court ordering the National Marine Fisheries Service to reconsider classifying blueback herring as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act

Letter to Regional Administrator John Bullard, NMFS, Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office, on behalf of Earthjustice’s clients in Flaherty v. Bryson, urging him to reject the New England Council’s recommendation for the river herring and shad (RH/S) catch caps in the proposed 2016-2018 Atlantic herring specifications.

Challenge flawed decision not to list imperiled river herring as a “threatened species”

Earthjustice, NRDC and a coalition of fishing and watershed protection groups filed a complaint today in federal court seeking to reverse a decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service not to list the blueback herring as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

Earthjustice and NRDC Join Fishing and Watershed Groups to File Notice to Sue to Protect Imperiled River Herring

The Endangered Species Act is clear. Given the imperiled status of blueback herring and the lack of sufficient action by regulators to stem the decline of river herring, a threatened designation for blueback herring is now necessary to jump start recovery.

Scientists and fishermen agree that the industrial midwater trawl fleet is taking a toll on many species on the Atlantic Coast. Unfortunately, an important action to rein in this damage is facing a substantial delay.

The industrial Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries continue to kill river herring by the millions as “incidental catch” with little oversight and no meaningful accountability.

Fishermen sue National Fisheries Service to protect river herring and shad from industrial trawlers.

Recent decision to kill new plan violated federal law

Pity the lowly herring, an essential species getting little love these days from the government agencies that are supposed to protect them.

A new law that takes effect today will remove a blockade across a U.S.-Canadian border river erected nearly two decades ago that prevented alewives (river herring) from returning to their historic spawning habitat.

U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler has found that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) acted illegally in approving the plan put together by the New England Fisheries Management Council known as Amendment 4 and tossed out the entire amendment.

U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler found that the National Marine Fisheries Service acted illegally in their implementation of New England Fisheries Management Plan known as Amendment 4 for river and sea herring

Barriers to native habitat must be removed to restore this “keystone” species

EPA finding on Maine River Herring Law