Mike of [1] Sanders Fish Market wrote a comment on a smelt post from last year, and so that it wouldn’t get lost I’m re-posting here:

[2] Mike says:

To the best of my knowledge, smelt in general are not overfished or endangered. The ones in found here in Great Bay are Rainbow Smelt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_smelt). They have been fished there for years. It is true that human change to the surrounding environment (man-made dams, etc.) have lowered the local smelt population over the years according to this 2007 article (http://archive.seacoastonline.com/news/03052007/nhnews-ph-p-estuary.html). On the other hand, they are typically only caught a few months out of the year (when Great Bay is frozen) and are sometimes considered an invasive species for other fish…

[3] (and look! native shrimp with their heads off, a great way to get them!)