herring numbers

[angler229]

Originally Posted by niko

large mouth bass was fat from eating herring. from some of the responces it sounds like a mixed bag as far as improvement. can herring be transplanted into weaker/dead runs?

They can...though how effective it is, is another story. Essentially, they take the fish and put them in the headwaters (pond) of another run and hope that the herring that are then born there will start returning there. It's usually done when they restore ladders to try to get a jump in the numbers. Also it generally is 3 years before herring will return to spawn so it takes a while to start to see the effects. They use the Nemasket (Middleboro) and Town Brook (Plymouth) runs a fair amount to perform these stockings.

[Mike P]

The Bournedale run in the Canal started very late this year.

Last year they showed at the end of March, but the numbers were abysmal.

Since the herring moratorium started in 2008, in only one year (2009) did they record more than 100,000 herring.

So this run isn't bouncing back.

[MVbluefish]

Oak Bluffs run had a few but I counted more cormorants than herring.

[Sea Flat]

Seems to be hit or miss. One run that I am aware of that usually has little to no herring has produced a pretty large amount this year. So much so that cormorants have shown up. I have seen the herring messing all around in the nearby harbor. Pretty cool

[Van]

The water is black in the run in Plymouth, they were so thick.

Up and downstream as far as we could see.