Effective Today (December 11, 2025)
NOAA Fisheries announces 2025-2027 Atlantic herring specifications that are consistent with recommendations by the New England Fishery Management Council. This action sets new 2025 Atlantic herring specifications and projects herring specifications for 2026-2027. This action maintains the current river herring and shad catch caps for 2025, projects the current catch caps for 2026-2027, and revises the target rebuilding date for Atlantic herring from 2028 to 2031. This action is necessary to respond to updated scientific information from a 2024 stock assessment and to achieve the objectives of the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan, including preventing overfishing, helping rebuild an overfished stock, and achieving optimum yield on a continuing basis.
2025-2027 Atlantic Herring Specifications
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Specifications
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New (mt)
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Projected (mt)
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2025
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2026
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2027
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Overfishing Limit
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20,802
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23,491
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31,075
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Acceptable Biological Catch
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8,587
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13,165
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13,165
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Management Uncertainty*
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4,031**
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4,031
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4,031
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Annual Catch Limit/Optimum Yield*
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4,556**
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9,134
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9,134
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Domestic Annual Harvest
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4,556
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9,134
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9,134
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Border Transfer
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0
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0
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0
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Domestic Annual Processing
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4,556
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9,134
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9,134
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US At-Sea Processing
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0
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0
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0
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Area 1A Sub-ACL (28.9%)*
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1,317**
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2,640
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2,640
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Area 1B Sub-ACL (4.3%)
|
196
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393
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393
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Area 2 Sub-ACL (27.8%)
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1,267
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2,539
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2,539
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Area 3 Sub-ACL (39%)
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1,777
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3,562
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3,562
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Fixed Gear Set-Aside
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30
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30
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30
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Research Set-Aside
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0%
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0%
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0%
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* If New Brunswick weir landings are less than 2,600 mt through October 1, then 1,000 mt will be subtracted from the management uncertainty and reallocated to the Area 1A sub-ACL and the ACL.
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** In 2025, NMFS determined that New Brunswick weir landings were less than 2,600 mt through October 1. Therefore, effective November 17, 2025, NMFS subtracted 1,000 mt from the 2025 management uncertainty and reallocated it to the 2025 Area 1A sub-ACL and ACL (90 FR 51570; November 18, 2025). The resulting effect on the then “current” 2025 specifications was as follows, the management uncertainty equaled 3,031 mt, the Area 1A sub-ACL equaled 1,783 mt, and the ACL equaled 3,710 mt. Additionally, the effect of this change as applied to the “new” 2025 specifications is as follows, the management uncertainty equals 3,031 mt, the Area 1A sub-ACL equals 2,317 mt, and the ACL equals 5,556 mt.
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All vessels participating in the herring fishery must comply with notification and reporting requirements. The new 2025 specifications allow for additional harvesting in Management Areas 1A, 2, and 3, but not in Area 1B because of a catch overage in Area 1B earlier this year. For more information on available harvest, please visit our Atlantic Herring Quota Monitoring webpage.
Read the final rule as published in the Federal Register today and our fisheries bulletin.
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