The rules have changed at sea, and herring are suddenly all over the place off Maine reports Tom Bell in the Kennebec Journal Morning Sentinel (and Blethen Maine Newspapers, too. Not sure exactly where Mr. Bell works.) The bountiful sea life follows close in the wake of a ban on midwater herring trawls in which boats drag very large nets below the surface. Purse seining (as in pic, source here with a Robinson Jeffers poem too) is still okay. The trawl ban is getting wide credit for the sighting of herring shoals where they had not been seen for years. To his own credit, Bell finds scientists who say the connection has slim evidence to back it. Lots of whales are showing up, too. Whatever the reason, herring undergird much of the local fishery, food for remaining cod among other things, so their rising numbers look like good news.

Other stories: AP version;

-CP

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