World Fish Migration Day Celebration At Herring Run
18 April 2018
By: William F. Galvin
The Cape Cod Chronicle
WEST HARWICH — A lot of activity will be taking place around the town’s herring run, but the cold spring weather has slowed the migration of the anadromous fish moving into headwater ponds to spawn.
“It’s been slow and the last week has been very cold, but we’re starting to see them in small numbers,” Brad C. Chase, a diadromous fish biologist with the state Division of Marine Fisheries, said on Friday. “The Cape hasn’t seen a big showing so far.”
But Chase, who serves as the chairman of the town’s conservation commission, said he anticipates the herring will soon be moving through the herring run, into West Reservoir and on up into the headwater ponds. He said usually the third week in April is prime time.
That would be perfect timing because a World Fish Migration Day celebration is planned at the herring run at Johnson’s flume at the Bell’s Neck Conservation Area on Saturday. Chase said the celebration was started by a major non-governmental organization a few years ago with the idea of teaching people more more about diadromous fish.
Diadromous fish move through both freshwater and saltwater ecosystems during their lifespans. Anadromous fish such as herring feed and grow in saltwater with adults migrating to freshwater to reproduce. Catadromous fish, such as the American eel, feed and grow in freshwater and return to the ocean to reproduce.
Barnstable County Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, Harwich Conservation Trust and the Harwich Conservation Commission see the World Fish Migration Day celebration as a good way to educate people about diadromous fish habits.
Chase said Abigail Archer, a marine resource specialist with the Cape Cod Extension, and Sara Turner of the Division of Marine Fisheries, were looking for a location to highlight fish migration associated with this event and he urged them to consider the Harwich herring run.
Staff from CCCE and DMF will be present at the run on April 21 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. demonstrating how the electronic fish counter installed there by DMF works. They will answer questions about monitoring and research of sea-run fish. The event will also provide opportunities for people to observe migratory fish moving through the herring ladder. The fish ladder is located at the west trail head entrance to Bell’s Neck Conservation Area off Depot Street.
Monitoring herring movement into the headwater ponds to spawn is an important means of understanding the health of the fish stock. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s School for Marine Science and Technology is requesting permission from the town to place a high-resolution sonar fish counter in the river just above where the DMF electronic counter is located at the head of the fish ladder.
“This will allow us to ground-truth the count data from the electronic counters collected by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries,” Chris Rillaham, a PhD candidate at the University of Massachusetts, stated in a letter to Harwich Natural Resources Director Heinz Proft. “In addition, it will give us better resolution as to when fish are passing and their school sizes. There is growing evidence from other systems that these fish are moving at dusk or early evening which has implication for visual counting methods.
“The overall goal is to get better understanding of the resource and how to effectively monitor it. The Herring River is an ideal site to conduct this research due to the relatively large run and the availability of two additional surveys,” Rillaham wrote.
Along with the electronic counter put in the ladder a couple of years ago by DMF, Harwich Conservation Trust has a visual counting program from which they extrapolate the number of fish passing through the river to the headwaters.
The conservation commission on Friday voted to approve the request to locate the sonar fish counter in the river. The commission also voted to approve the World Fish Migration Day event at the herring run.
Chase is excited about the event, pointing out he planned to attend the fifth annual Herring Run Festival on Nemasket River in Middleborough last weekend. That festival has blossomed into a tourist attraction drawing 8,500 people over last year.
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