Puffin stuff: Herring rules could boost funny-looking bird

Puffin stuff: Herring rules could boost funny-looking bird

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Those same Gulf of Maine waters are an important area for the U.S. herring fishery. The fishery has had to contend with quota cuts in recent years because of federal efforts to protect the fish's population, and more restrictions are on the way.

The U.S. catch of herring, based mostly in Maine and Massachusetts, fell from more than 200 million pounds in 2014 to less than 25 million pounds in 2019.

Puffins are dependent on small fish to survive, and new protections to the herring population could help them do that, said Don Lyons, director of conservation science for the National Audubon Society's Seabird Institute in Bremen, Maine.

 An Atlantic puffin carries bait fish it will feed its chick. AP

"Herring are certainly a key food source for puffins. The kind of fish they do best on, that they best raise chicks feeding,“ Lyons said. "The declines of herring over the last decade or longer have not been good for puffins.“

The herring fishery is facing a new set of restrictions from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration starting Feb. 10. The restrictions include a prohibition on the use of certain fishing gear in inshore waters. They