



Catch caps are used to limit incidental catch of a non-target species in a fishery. Once a pre-determined percentage of a catch cap is projected to be reached in a particular area by a particular gear type, directed fishing of the target species may be limited.
Shad (including American and hickory shad) and river herring (including alewife and blueback herring) are anadromous fish that spend the majority of their adult lives at sea, only returning to freshwater in the spring to spawn. Historically, shad and river herring spawned in virtually every river and tributary along the coast.
Both river herring and shad spawn in freshwater, and the young leave their home river within the first year and will spend the next few years at sea. They school in large numbers, and upon reaching maturity, return to the streams they were born in to spawn.
Shad and river herring once supported a large and important commercial and recreational fishery along the Atlantic coast. The damming of rivers, combined with habitat degradation and overfishing, have depleted shad and river herring populations.
River herring and shad may co-occur seasonally with Atlantic herring and are harvested as a non-target species in the fishery. When river herring are encountered in the herring fishery, they are either discarded at sea (bycatch) or, because they closely resemble herring, they are retained and sold as part of the herring catch (incidental catch).
River herring and shad catch caps were enacted to provide an incentive for the industry to continue to avoid river herring/shad and reduce river herring/shad catch to the extent practicable. The catch cap regulations specify that:
River Herring/Shad Catch Cap Monitoring