Comment from Tom Tamplin

I urge the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to consider the alewife and blueback herring for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These "river herring" were once hugely abundant in coastal waters, rivers and streams of the eastern United States. But decades of fishing, pollution, and dams have reduced the populations in most of these waterways to a tiny fraction of their historic abundance. NMFS' own Office of Protected Species has listed these two populations as "Species of Concern," yet neither NMFS nor any other fishery managers have put measures in place to reduce or limit the significant number of river herring killed in Federal waters. Millions of these fish are caught, landed, and sold by industrial midwater trawl fleets targeting other species. In early August, the Natural Resources Defense Council submitted a petition to NMFS requesting that alewife and blueback herring be listed as threatened under the ESA. Both of these unique species need the protections provided by the ESA if they are to survive. NMFS should take the first step to saving the alewife and blueback herring by making a positive 90-day determination that listing these species may be warranted. The agency should then move forward as quickly as possible to conduct a full scientific review of the petition and the requested ESA listings.