The herring are returning early to the Island this year, providing a necessary food source for many Island species.
Every year in the springtime, blueback herring and alewife herring make the swim from the icy waters of the Atlantic into the Menemsha Pond complex, where they pass through the historic herring run, monitored by the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah). After passing through the run — a relatively shallow stream only a couple feet wide — the anadromous fish flood into Squibnocket Pond, where they will eventually spawn.
The tribe Natural Resources Department has been monitoring the run for the past five years, and laboratory manager Andrew Jacobs said this is the first year he has seen the fish arrive so early. “It was pretty surprising, this year the first herring was seen on March 23 through our herring cam,” Jacobs said.
Once the first fish is recorded, the folks at the lab in Aquinnah begin the tedious and intensive process of counting each and every fish that swims by the underwater camera. They also record other fish species that pass through, and any other animals that might be caught on the video.
Across the eastern seaboard, Jacobs said there has been a drastic decline in herring averages over the past number of years. Whereas approximately 36,000 herring have moved into Squibnocket Pond each season in recent years, Jacobs said the pond population was once estimated at over 1.5 million fish.
As of now, Jacobs said more than 9,000 herring have already travelled through the run, and this time last year, that number was sitting at around 2,000. According to Jacobs, the current herring count is 10 times more herring than were counted at this time in 2017 or 2018. “It’s wonderful to see the uptick in stocks, but it doesn’t necessarily speak to the overall fish population; it could be just an early migration because of the warmer waters,” Jacobs said. “Water temperature within Menemsha Pond is about 1°C (1.8°F) warmer at this time than in the past 4 years.”
Nevertheless, Jacobs noted the immense benefit of an early arrival, and said that many other species of fish and animals rely on the herring as a food source.
“So many other animal species rely heavily on the herring every year. They are going to feed your osprey, your river otters, your striped bass, and all the aquatic animals that we enjoy here on the Vineyard,” Jacobs said.
Bret Stearns, the director of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Natural Resources Department, said there has been a lot of dredge work at the herring run, allowing for plenty of room for the fish to swim through. “We did a complete dredging of the section of water between State Road and Squibnocket Pond and removed a tremendous amount of material in those spaces where the fish have to travel through,” Stearns said. “It’s the first time in 50 years that there has been all that space for them.”
Stearns said that the herring are far from the only animals that benefit from the run. Over 36 other species of animals use the run for travel, and countless others use it as a food or water source.
Visit the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head Natural Resources Department website for more information, or check out their Facebook page.