July 8, 2024 — Scientists say many more alewives and blueback herring have made their way into Maine’s waterways this year — a recovery they attribute to dam removals and habitat restoration.
Sean Ledwin, the director of the Bureau of Sea-Run Fisheries and Habitat at the the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said several rivers are seeing strong runs again this year, after record counts in 2023.
July 14, 2022 — Hutchins, a habitat restoration biologist with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, lives and works on Cape Ann. Along with a small group of volunteers, he monitors the baby eels migrating upstream at Mill Brook between spring and fall. In a year, sometimes they’ll document well over a thousand elvers.
Half a century ago, fishermen harvested millions of pounds of American eels annually up and down the Atlantic Coast. By 2013, however, researchers estimated the population had dropped by half.
Experts suspect overfishing and coastal development have played a role in the decline, along with eutrophication — when nutrients from sewage and fertilizers choke the oxygen from ponds and streams.
Another fish fundamental to fresh and saltwater ecology is the river herring.
Alewives and bluebacks are migratory herring that range along the East Coast from Florida to Maine. Whereas eels are born in the ocean but live in freshwater, river herring live in coastal waters and only venture inland to spawn.
As with eel, river herring populations began to crash in the 1980s, coinciding with advances in commercial fishing techniques and new construction along the coast.
Massachusetts is home to about 3,000 dams, with many built in the 19th century for water power, reservoirs, or flood control.
“A dam in a river is like a blocked artery; it’s like a heart attack,” said Robert Kearns, a climate resiliency specialist at the Charles River Watershed Association. “It degrades the water quality behind it; reduces the dissolved oxygen which fish rely on to breathe and to live … and creates a habitat that’s better for invasive species.”
Beyond commercial fishing, a report by the American Sportfishing Association found saltwater sport fishing generates over $500 million dollars a year in sales, wages, and taxes in Massachusetts.
But amid the reality of human-made climate change, the future of the herring and the eels, on which so much depends, remains very much in question.
April 14, 2022 — The following was released by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission:
The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has initiated a benchmark stock assessment for river herring to be completed in the summer of 2023. River herring is the collective name for two closely related species, alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), that return to rivers from Maine through Florida to spawn every year. The goals of the assessment are to evaluate the health of stocks along the Atlantic coast and inform management of these species. The Commission’s stock assessment process and meetings are open to the public, with the exception of discussions of confidential data.
The Commission welcomes the submission of data sources that will contribute to the goals of the assessment. This includes, but is not limited to, data on abundance including run counts and surveys, stocking, biological samples (sex, maturity, age, weight, length), life history information (growth, fecundity, natural mortality, sex ratio, spawning history), stock structure (tagging data, genetics), mortality (predator diet, anthropogenic sources such as hydropower dams), and catch (harvest, discard, fishing effort). An essential need is data to inform the stock assessment of discards and bycatch in other directed fisheries (e.g. the Atlantic herring fishery). For data sets to be considered, the data must be sent in the required format, with accompanying description of methods, to the Commission by July 1, 2022.
The Commission will hold a Data Workshop July 12-14, 2022 via webinar to review all available data sources for river herring and identify datasets to be incorporated in the stock assessment. The Data Workshop is open to the public. To register for the webinar, visit https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5539956829101821456. (Webinar ID 375-897-411).
For more information on submitting data, including the appropriate format, and/or attending the River Herring Data Workshop, please contact Katie Drew, Stock Assessment Team Lead, at kdrew@asmfc.org or 703.842.0740.
June 1, 2021 — A small fish that has been the subject of conservation efforts for years appears to be growing in number in the rivers of the East Coast.
River herring are critically important to coastal ecosystems because they serve as food for birds and larger fish. Regulators have described the fishes’ population as nearing historic lows because of dams, pollution, warming waters and other factors.
But years of effort to save them appear to be paying off. Preliminary counts of the fish from Maine to South Carolina in 2019 showed 2.7 million more fish than in 2015, according to documents provided by the regulatory Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The 2019 counts found more than 6.5 million fish.
The river herrings include two species of schooling fish, alewives and blueback herring, that have been fished in East Coast rivers for millennia. Harvesters of the fish said conservative management of the fishery in recent years, coupled with conservation efforts such as dam removal, have helped the fish spawn and grow in number.
“You’ve got to get the parents in the bedroom so the kids can go to school,” said Jeff Pierce, a longtime alewife fisherman and the president of Alewife Harvesters of Maine.
June 14, 2019 — A decision to add two species of river herring to the federal endangered species list is due from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) later this month, and it could have significant implications for southeastern New England.
Alewives and blueback herring, collectively called river herring, were once abundant in rivers and nearshore waters from Canada to South Carolina, but dams, climate change, and overfishing have contributed to their decline by as much as 98 percent.
“Historically, they used all the big and small rivers on the entire Atlantic Seaboard,” said Erica Fuller, senior attorney for the Conservation Law Foundation, who has been advocating for increased management of the species for years. “They were the fish that fed the settlers; they were everywhere. There’s even a story of General Washington feeding the troops with alewives.”
But, she added, the species have been at historic lows for decades.
October 15, 2018 — A little fish on the East Coast that once provided vital protein for American colonists and bait for generations of New England lobstermen is slowly making a comeback after falling victim to lost habitat and environmental degradation.
River herring once appeared headed to the endangered species list, but they’re now starting to turn up in rivers and streams at a rate that fishing regulators say is encouraging. The fish is a critical piece of the ecosystem in the eastern states, where it serves as food for birds and larger fish.
The comeback is most noticeable in Maine, the state with by far the largest river herring fishery in the country. Maine fishermen capture alewives, a species of river herring, and their catch of nearly 1.7 million pounds last year was the second largest in the last 37 years.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at The News Tribune
August 1, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The federal competition for 2019-2021 Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside (RSA) Awards is now open. The deadline for submitting full proposals is 5 p.m., Thursday, September 20, 2018.
The New England Fishery Management Council established the RSA program in 2007 under Amendment 1 to the Atlantic Herring Fishery Management Plan. Under the program, the Council sets aside 0% to 3% of the annual catch limit (ACL) from each herring management area to support research identified by the Council as priority projects. NOAA Fisheries manages the RSA competition and administers the program.
IMPORTANT: The amount of quota that will be set aside for 2019-2021 projects is not known yet and will be determined only after the Council sets specifications for the next three fishing years. The Council will receive an update on 2019-2021 specifications during its September meeting in Plymouth, MA and then take final action in December at its meeting in Newport, RI. RSA proposals are due before the Council takes final action.
During the 2016-2018 specification-setting process, the Council elected to set aside the maximum level of 3% for RSA compensation. The Council once again will need to specify the percentage allocated to the RSA Program in the 2019-2021 specifications package.
Atlantic Herring Research Set-Aside Priorities
The Council adopted five research priorities for the 2019-2021 Atlantic Herring RSA Program when it met back in December 2017. These – in no particular order of priority – cover the following scope:
NOTE: RSA compensation fishing is exempt from: (1) the Area 1A January-May seasonal closure and the Area 1B January-April seasonal closure; and (2) area closures that occur when a sub-ACL has been reached.
2018 Assessment Results, Amendment 8
The Council is awaiting results from the 2018 benchmark stock assessment for Atlantic herring. The stock’s status will factor into the Council’s decision-making for 2019-2021 specifications. Information about the assessment is available at SAW/SARC 65 and 2018 benchmarks.
The Council also is scheduled to take final action on Amendment 8 to the Atlantic Herring FMP in late September and may select a new acceptable biological catch (ABC) control rule. Control rules guide the specification-setting process. Learn more at Amendment 8.
View the release in its entirety here.
March 19, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
ATLANTIC SEA SCALLOPS: The 2018 scallop fishing year will begin on April 1.
ATLANTIC HERRING: Effective March 14, NMFS prohibited Atlantic herring midwater trawl vessels from directed fishing in the Mid-Atlantic/Southern New England Catch Cap Area after projecting that the fishery’s river herring/shad catch cap had been harvested. The herring midwater trawl possession limit is 2,000 pounds in this area for the remainder of the 2018 fishing year, which ends December 31.
GROUNDFISH: Effective March 1, NMFS extended its previous emergency action to remove the 2017 southern windowpane flounder AMs for non-groundfish trawl vessels. The emergency action will run through April 30, the end of the 2017 fishing year. Read the notice at emergency action extension. A map of the area is available at bulletin.
GROUNDFISH RECREATIONAL: At the request of the New England Council, NMFS published a new control date that may be used to determine future participation in the Northeast multispecies charter/party fishery. The new control date is March 19, 2018. This replaces the previous March 30, 2006 control date, which many members of the industry considered to be “stale” and not reflective of current conditions in the fishery. NMFS is collecting public comment on the new date through April 18. The notice is available at March 19, 2018 control date. Learn more about the New England Council’s recent recreational actions at January 31 decision-making.
RED HAKE: NMFS has notified the New England Council that the Southern Georges Bank/Mid-Atlantic stock of red hake is now subject to overfishing and overfished based on the recent 2017 assessment. As such, the Council will be working to develop measures to end overfishing and rebuild the stock. Read the Federal Register notice and visit the Council’s Small-Mesh Multispecies Webpage.
DOGFISH, MID-ATLANTIC SPECIES: Spiny dogfish is jointly managed by the New England and Mid-Atlantic Councils. The Mid-Atlantic, which has the administrative lead over the Spiny Dogfish FMP, is soliciting applications from qualified individuals to serve on the Dogfish Advisory Panel.
Learn more about the NEFMC by visiting their site here.
March 14, 2018 — BOSTON — Some vessels that harvest herring off the East Coast will be limited in how much they can bring to shore for the rest of the year.
Herring is a major fish population in the Atlantic Ocean, where the little fish are harvested for use as bait, food and fish oil. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says some herring boats in the southern New England and mid-Atlantic areas have reached a limit for the amount of shad and river herring they are allowed to catch.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Washington Post
January 31, 2018 — The following was released by the New England Fishery Management Council:
The New England Fishery Management Council today initiated Framework Adjustment 6 to the Northeast Skate Complex Fishery Management Plan to consider alternatives for prolonging the skate wing fishery. The intent of this action is to better utilize total allowable landings and keep the fishery open as long as possible. The Council agreed to take this step at the request of industry. Many skate fishermen approached the Council during its December 2017 meeting asking that the framework be a 2018 priority.
The Skate Plan Development Team – with considerable input and guidance from the Skate Committee and Advisory Panel – will work over the next few months to analyze possession limit alternatives and other approaches that would help meet the framework’s goals and objectives. The Council will receive a progress report at its April meeting in Mystic, CT. Final action will occur either in April or June with the intent of having new measures in place during the second half of the 2018 fishing year, which ends April 30, 2019.
Industry-Funded Monitoring
The Council also received an update from the National Marine Fisheries Service’s (NMFS) Greater Atlantic Regional Fisheries Office (GARFO) on an electronic Skates captured during a cooperative research trip. – Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS) photo monitoring (EM) project that GARFO and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) conducted from August 2016 to January 2018 aboard 11 midwater trawl vessels participating in the Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries. An estimated 1,000 hours of EM footage was collected on 126 herring trips, and 32 of those trips also were monitored by at-sea observers. The project was designed to evaluate whether or not electronic monitoring is an effective tool for tracking catch, discards, and slippage events on midwater trawl vessels involved in these fisheries.
In April 2017, the Council took final action on an Omnibus Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) Amendment that contains alternatives for potentially allowing EM and portside sampling as monitoring options for the Atlantic herring midwater trawl fishery. Mackerel is managed by the Mid-Atlantic Council, which has not acted yet on this amendment. The proposed rule for the New England Council’s action is being developed by NMFS and has a target implementation date of fall 2018.
Once the amendment is in place, herring fishermen will need to pay a substantial portion of the costs associated with monitoring the fishery, as implied in the term “industry-funded monitoring.” NMFS’s final report and recommendations resulting from the EM project will be presented to the Council at its April 17- 19 meeting.
Herring industry members also are interested in learning whether or not these new tools can be more cost effective than at-sea monitoring.
Setting Research Priorities
Based on recommendations from its Research Steering Committee (RSC), the Council endorsed several improvements to its research priority-setting process. It also provided guidance on improving the format for listing and tracking the priorities.
In related actions, the Council agreed to: (1) ask the Council Coordination Committee to urge NMFS to require anyone applying for national research program funding to indicate if and how their proposals would meet a regional fishery management council research priority in addition to national priorities; and (2) add, as a Council research priority, a more thorough evaluation of methods to reduce seabed impacts by ground cables used in trawl fisheries.
The Council also received a short briefing from its Research Steering Committee on the Northeast Fisheries Science Center’s Northeast Cooperative Research Program activities, as well as and an overview of recent management reviews conducted for three completed projects. These were:
(1) the Seasonal Scallop Bycatch Survey;
(2) the River Herring Bycatch Avoidance project; and
(3) Effects of Fishing on Herring Aggregations.
View the release in its entirety by clicking here.