Twenty years ago, Massachusetts banned harvesting river herring in an attempt to protect alewife and blueback herring.
Last year the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission released a stock assessment that determined herring populations are stable throughout the coast, including Massachusetts.
Mike Palmer coordinates an annual spring herring count for the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. He said we need to be doing more to help the population rebound.
“It's not horrible news,” Palmer said. “But for a resource that's as over-harvested and depleted as river herring currently are, we would like to be seeing much more positive response to the populations and what we've seen since the moratorium went into effect.”
Palmer said the spring 2025 count showed below-average returns on the Cape. Since then, continuing drought conditions have been tough on river herring that require sufficient river flows to return to the ocean in the fall.
Palmer says the depleted river herring population faces many challenges, including degraded habitat, polluted stormwater runoff, outdated culverts and dams, as well as falling victim to offshore bycatch. But, he says, there are ways people can help.
“Supporting your local restoration efforts, getting involved with towns' freshwater ponds committees,” Palmer suggested. “Some towns have herring clean-outs in the spring, where they go out before the migration comes in and make sure that the litter and debris has been removed from the runs.”
And, Palmer says, two of the biggest ways people can help are volunteering to count herring during the annual spring run and simply conserving water.
