Comment from Josh Etsten

I am writing today to ask you to fully approve Herring Amendment 5 and then implement these regulations as outlined in the Proposed Rule. As a recreational and commercial fisherman, USCG captain, the herring fishery affects me in multiple ways. The herring is a critical forage stock for many species converting plankton to biomass. Some of those species we catch are caught as by-catch in the herring midwater trawl fishery as well. Proper management of the midwater herring fishery is absolutely critical to the ecosystem at large, and to fish I catch. Amendment 5 was developed to address the problems in the herring plan. While there are many important components to the amendment, the cap on slippage and 100% observer coverage are the two pieces that are critical. These two measures, voted in by a large margin by the Council, are essential in order to monitor the health of this fishery. Herring is the cornerstone of the ecosystem off our coast, and its health and sustainability is THE key to the success of the other fisheries in the Northeast. We cannot afford to make any more mistakes here! It is essential that NMFS fully approves Amendment 5 and then implement the new regulations as set forth in the PR. This resource is far too important to be managed inadequately.