Herring were so common in the Potomac River in the spring of 1832 that a single seine net captured a few more than 950,000 "accurately counted," according to a report at the time. A few decades later, Spencer Baird, head of the U.S. Fish Commission, estimated that during the 1830s, the herring in the river must have numbered 3 billion fish.

Today, their numbers are only a "faint shadow" of what they were, said Jim Cummins, a biologist with the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin. Like their cousin, the larger American shad, river herring numbers are thought to be at near-record lows along the East Coast.

Read the complete story at The Chesapeake Bay Journal.