Herring Harvest Postponed A Week

 HARWICH – The opening day after the 22-year moratorium on the public harvest of herring at Johnson’s Flume in West Harwich was cancelled on Sunday. The herring run was supposed to be open from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. that morning. 

 But Natural Resources Director Stephanie Ridenour made the decision, based on the extremely cold temperatures on the previous Wednesday and Thursday nights, to keep the run closed on Sunday. Ridenour said the cold weather slows down the migration of the herring, reducing fish numbers in the flume.

 Ridenour said she contacted permitholders either by email or in a few cases telephone to let them know ahead of time the run would not be open for harvest on Sunday. Ridenour was there on Sunday to assure permitholders got the message. They did, only one couple showed up with a fish net and bucket ready to catch the 20 fish allotment under the permit. No harvesting occurred.

 Though according to Ridenour, the fish passage numbers are looking good. She said as of Sunday morning more than 40,000 fish had passed through the state Division of Marine Fisheries’ counting machine at the top of the flume this year. She said 11,000 passed through the flume between Saturday and Sunday.

 Absent Sunday’s harvest the arrival of the herring still drew a steady stream of observers throughout the morning. 

The natural resources department put a cap of 150 permits to harvest herring this spring. Ridehour said there are still some residential permits available. The opening day for the harvest is now set for Sunday, April 19. On that day, the three-hour open harvest period will be from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.