Herring migration movie
Red herring.
10 Herring runs around Buzzards Bay to visit this spring
Fish ladders have been installed at many dams, but they aren’t always successful. If river herring can’t swim upstream to reach their spawning areas, they’re much less likely to reproduce.
River herring are considered a “foundation” fish in the Buzzards Bay ecosystem.
Many of the Bay’s large sportfish and water birds – including ospreys and striped bass, two other tell-tale signs of spring – rely on river herring as food.
Alewife vs blueback herring
And river herring feed on plankton in the water, making them an important link in the food web.
Unfortunately, herring populations up and down the East Coast have been in decline for years. Dams and other blockages are one of the biggest problems facing river herring and other migratory fish.
(When you visit these herring runs, you’ll see posted signage prohibiting the harvest of river herring. In 2006, Massachusetts became one of several states to ban the catch, sale, and possession of river herri
