This year’s count of herring in the Mattapoisett River was 9,353, an increase more than double that of the 2023 total of 4,050, an increase of 5,303.
Herring were going into Snipatuit Pond before we got the counter installed, and there were more than three weeks early in the counting season due to high water where the herring could go up the west bay and by-pass the counter in the east bay, both situations which may have added a significant amount to the total recorded by the counter. Otherwise, conditions were ideal this past Spring, the counter appears to have functioned without errors.
Alewives Anonymous, Inc. also set up an electronic fish counter on the Sippican River at Leonard’s Pond for 2024, the count up being only 45. The first eight days the counter was in, the water level in the pond was too low for it to function. The low counts recorded, most days zero and seldom more than five, are unlikely to have been herring but pond and river fish. We can only draw the conclusion that there were no herring that entered Leonard’s Pond this year. The Buzzards Bay Coalition has recorded 448 fish on their counter at Hathaway’s Pond.
The moratorium against the taking or possession of herring from the Mattapoisett River and the Sippican River, as well as many other rivers in Massachusetts, remains in effect. Over the years that the moratorium has been in effect, the herring population in the Mattapoisett River had increased to just over 55,400 in 2014, then was followed by some years of declining counts. The counting effort will continue and provide the necessary information to manage a future harvest in the Mattapoisett River; however, continued improvements in the counts are needed to support a sustainable fishery plan and to justify an opening. Once the herring population reaches a point where a sustainable harvest plan can be formulated, filed with Division of Marine Fisheries and approved, harvesting could be resumed.