herring run | Mary Richmond's Cape Cod Art and Nature

What a difference a few days can make! They are a little late this year but the herring are finally here…

All those dark squiggly lines are fish. We mostly get two kinds of herring here, the blueback herring and the more common alewives. All herring are what are known as anadromous fish. They live in salt water except to breed and lay eggs. For that they need to migrate to fresh water.

If you click on these images you will get a better view of the fish but you can see how well camouflaged they are. These guys know the real meaning of swimming upstream and you can watch them swim up the waterfalls and inclines even against rushing water.

Watching the herring and alewives arrive each spring is a true Cape Cod tradition and something many of us look forward to every year. I am linking to the Mass Fish and Wildlife page that gives updated information on this annual event and rules that accompany it now that the fishery numbers have declined dramatically.

If you have a chance to go to a herring run, please do. It is a sight you won’t soon forget and kids love it. Watch the gulls, herons and ospreys gather all along the creeks and rivers to take advantage of the huge numbers of fish, too. If you ever wondered why herring gulls are so named, you won’t after you see them feasting on the fish…they swallow them whole!

These pictures were taken this morning at the Brewster Herring Run on Stony Brook Rd.

At this time every year an amazing phenomenon takes place. Herring, alewives and shad (all the same kind of fish) return from the sea to fresh water to spawn. They come by the thousands and much of their journey is uphill.They swim through the creeks and rivers and up the waterfalls….
They hope to get by the gulls and herons that come to feed….
They hope to reach this place or places like it.
Herring are anadromous, meaning they live in salt water as adults but spawn and are born in fresh water. Late in the summer and in early fall the young herring, known as fingerlings, will return to the sea.
These pictures are a bit murky but give you an idea of the numbers of fish passing by and the ‘run’ has only just begun.
There is a moratorium on taking herring from the runs where I live since the herring population, once robust and enormous, is now severely depleted, most likely due to large factory boats taking them by the millions….