Towards a comprehensive strategy to recover river herring on the Atlantic seaboard: lessons from Pacific salmon

Abstract

Abstract River herring (alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus, and blueback herring, Alosa aestivalis) are anadromous alosines that play important ecological roles and comprised major US fisheries in the past. Stocks are at historically low levels Atlantic coast-wide and river herring are being considered for listing as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. A comprehensive, linked freshwater and marine approach to restoring these important species is proposed, informed by a “life cycle” strategy for the recovery of an Endangered Pacific salmon species. The California coho salmon strategy entails identifying core populations stratified by biological units, assessing threats and developing site-specific and range-wide recovery actions to restore habitat and abate threats to all life stages. Protecting and strengthening core populations, combined with marine strategies, is likely key to the recovery of the species at scale. A case study is presented from the Taunton River, a ∼1300-km2 watershed in Massachusetts (USA) that hosts one of the largest river herring runs in New England. This watershed and its river herring populations possess multiple characteristics that indicate resilience and thus it could be an example of a river herring core habitat, critical for the recovery of the species at scale. A watershed-wide protection and restoration initiative is underway. Site-based strategies including dam removal, low impact development retrofits, and land protection are linked to policy efforts such as establishing streamflow standards and easing permitting of restoration projects to protect and improve connectivity, flow, and water quality. These watershed-based strategies are linked to regional scale research and fisheries management to set sustainable directed harvest targets and reduce the bycatch of river herring in ocean fisheries. Core habitats for river herring need to be identified range-wide and investments in those places prioritized to secure resilient source populations.