Industrialization of sand lance impacts endangered birds and other fish in food chain
Graduate students in Jennifer Bender’s Introduction to Environmental Innovation Clinic class have won protection in Massachusetts for the sand lance, a previously unregulated fish. Because of its slender shape, several species of sand lances are referred to as "sand eels," even though they are not related to eels.
“Locally there is no fishery for sand lance, so we thought, great, let’s protect this species with little impact to people’s livelihood and avoid any development of an industrial fishery of sand lance, a staple of the food chain in the Gulf of Maine and key to a sustainable and diverse ecosystem,” said Bender, the aquaculture education coordinator in the School for the Environment.
A new 200-pound fishing trip limit is designed to prevent the proliferation of an industrial scale bait or reduction fishery on this important nearshore forage species. The limit will continue to accommodate any small-scale commercial or personal bait harvesting activity that may be occurring with beach seines or other similar artisanal gear.
Through the Environmental Innovation Clinic, students explore various methodologies and identify, in collaboration with real client stakeholders, sustainable, innovative strategies to address current environmental challenges.
The students had support from School for the Environment Assistant Dean Alan Abend, Adjunct Professor and Assistant Director of the Fisheries Biology Section of the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries Michael Armstrong, and former SFE Dean Robyn Hannigan.