Tiny Forage Fish At Bottom Of Marine Food Web Get New Protections

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/04/07/473293477/tiny-forage-fish-at-bottom-of-marine-food-chain-get-new-protections?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Peruvian anchoveta being processed at a fish meal factory in Lima in 2009. The small forage species has been heavily fished.

Peruvian anchoveta being processed at a fish meal factory in Lima in 2009. The small forage species has been heavily fished.

Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty Images

Sardines, herring and other small fish species are the foundation of the marine food web — they’re essential food for birds, marine mammals and other fish. But globally, demand for these so-called forage species has exploded, with many going to feed the livestock and fish farming industries.

Some of these species are already heavily fished, and it will take time for them to recover. But other forage species have not yet been commercially targeted. And this week, the U.S. government passed measures — backed by environmentalists as well as fishermen — to protect these critical fish and invertebrate species in waters off the U.S. West Coast before they’re overfished.

A rule passed Monday by the National Marine Fisheries Service makes it illegal for commercial fishermen to develop…

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