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River Herring Monitoring

River herring, including alewife (Alosa psudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis), once supported one of the oldest and most valuable fisheries in Virginia. Since the 1970's a substantial decline in the stocks of river herring coast wide was noted. Commercial landings for both species have declined dramatically from historic highs. This resulted in the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission(ASMFC) to require moratoria on fisheries, unless stocks within a jurisdiction were shown to be sustainable. The most recent stock assessment for river herring concluded that stocks coast wide are depleted(ASMFC 2024). Due in part to lack of available fishery-independent data to address the question of sustainability, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission(VMRC) implemented a ban on the possession of alewife and blueback herring January 1, 2012. 

The primary objectives of the monitoring program:

  1. Survey for river herring in the Chickahominy and Rappahannock Rivers using anchor gill nets and monitor the catch rates of river herring during the spawning run.

  2. Describe the biological attributes (size, age composition, sex ratio, spawning history and reproductive status) of the catch of river herring.

  3. Provide information useful for management of river herring including:

    1. spawning stock strength and composition
    2. Calculation of instantaneous mortality (Z)
  4. Survey juvenile alosines using nighttime surface trawls to calculate a juvenile abundance index and determine patterns of downstream migrations.

This work is federally-mandated and provides critical information for stock assessment of a fishery under moratorium. The data will provide fisheries managers the ability to monitor recovery levels and set restoration goals for these stocks, in the hopes that stocks will recover to a level that will support a full fishery.