How long before Herring are the next “eat only occasionally” protected species ? I eat a lot of Herring; pickled, a habit picked-up in Norway, and kippers, a habit rekindled by returning to home not far from Whitby.
Mackerel have certainly dwindled in both size and abundance in my own experience. Back in the 60’s and 70’s you could hardly fail to catch 2 and 3 pounders from piers on the North Sea coast in the summer, these days you need to be out in a boat to get into a shoal of 0.5 to 1.5 pounders. Certainly always notice that those on the fishmonger’s ice are tiny compared to those we used to catch. Herring were never a rod-caught fish of course, but size-wise they still look like they always did. The Mackerel article recommends we eat Herring instead.