A Plan For Opening The Herring Run To Harvesting

HARWICH – For the first time in decades, it might soon be legal to harvest a limited number of herring from the town’s major herring run. The select board will conduct a public hearing on a plan to open the town’s herring fishery for the first time since a moratorium was put in place in 2004. The initial step would provide minimal access to the fishery.

Natural Resources Department Director Stephanie Ridenour was before the board last week putting forward a plan to reopen the fishery for public harvest. The town voted to institute a moratorium in 2004 based on dwindling fish counts of herring heading to the spawning grounds. A statewide moratorium came the following year.

But climbing herring counts in the Herring River in recent years have signalled a recovery. In 2014 the count registered 1.4 million fish passing through Johnson’s Flume in West Harwich, and in 2019 more than 1.2 million fish made it up to the spawning grounds. Numbers have slipped a little over the past few years; in 2023, 529,000 herring were recorded by the electronic fish counter at Johnson’s flume.

Herring numbers have been recorded in Harwich since 1764, and the numbers and revenue generated from the herring fishery played a major role in the early days of the community.

In a report presented in 1921, shellfish biologist David L. Belding told the Massachusetts Commissioners of Fisheries and Game that the herring run in the Herring River generated among the highest annual revenue for towns in Massachusetts from 1870 to 1900. Belding estimated that the maximum harvest could be as high as 2,895,000 fish contributing, to a spawning run size of 3,500,000 fish.

The town’s natural resources department, state Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission worked together to develop a Sustainable Fishery Management Plan for the opening of the Herring River to public harvest. The select board approved that plan in 2022, and discussions have taken place over the past three years about opening the fishery. Implementation of the fishery management plan stood in the way of lifting the moratorium.

 “This allows us to get our feet wet,” Ridenour told the select board.

The proposal going to public hearing on March 16 was called “moderate” given the allowances contained in the Sustainable Fishery Management Plan (SFMP). The plan would allow for a maximum of 600 permits to be issued, but Ridenour’s proposal calls for a maximum of just 150 permits. 

While the SFMP would allow for the fishery to be open for five weeks with three open days a week for three hours with a maximum of 54,685 fish harvested over the five weeks, Ridenour’s plan calls for the fishery to be open for three weeks, seven days a week when the fishery is open. A maximum of 21,000 fish could be harvested over that period..

A maximum of 120 recreational permits would be issued to residents, and 30 permits to non-residents. There would be a per-person harvest day catch limit of 20 fish in each of the seven days specified. The sale of fish harvested through this permit would be prohibited. Fish can only be taken from Johnson’s Flume and the harvest must occur using dip nets. The cost of a resident permit is $30, senior resident/taxpayers $15 and the non-resident permits are $70.

Catch cards are required informing the department of the number of fish harvested, and to provide the permit number of the individual. There are also several enforcement provisions that must be followed, and a fine schedule for violations. The plan states the harvesting of herring remains prohibited in the Skinequit Brook run. 

There is a cultural celebration accompanying the proposal, which identifies two of the open days for harvest during the school vacation to encourage youth participation, but individuals under 16 years of age are required to be with a permitted individual. There will be a herring canning class held at the 204 Cultural Arts Municipal Building along with a fish printing class. Kids will also get prizes for guessing the final fish count for the year.

The regulations proposed would be enforced by the herring warden and his/her designee, state environmental police officers and Harwich police officers.