Alewives Anonymous 2022 Herring Counts
on October 31, 2022
The Wanderer
The results of the 2022 alewives (river herring) migration as recorded by an electronic fish counter on the Mattapoisett River at Snipatuit Pond have been completed. This year’s count of herring in the Mattapoisett River was 2,332, an increase of 446 over the 2021 total of 1,886. Counting conditions were ideal this past spring, the counter appears to have functioned without errors. AA did not set up an electronic fish counter on the Sippican River at Leonard’s Pond in 2022. The Buzzards Bay
Coalition did set up their counter on the Sippican River at Hathaway’s Pond and recorded 37 fish. The moratorium against the taking or possession of herring from the Mattapoisett River and the Sippican River, as well as many other rivers in Massachusetts, remains in effect. Over the years that the moratorium has been in effect, the herring population in the Mattapoisett River had increased from about 6,000 to just over 55,400 in 2014 then was followed by some years of declining counts. The counting effort will continue and provide the necessary information to manage a future harvest in the Mattapoisett River; however, continued improvements in the counts are needed to support a sustainable fishery plan and to justify an opening. Once the herring population reaches a point where a sustainable harvest plan can be formulated, filed with Division of Marine Fisheries and approved, harvesting could be resumed.
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