Harwich Herring Run Opening Day Draws A Crowd

HARWICH – The herring were running strong in Johnson’s Flume on Sunday when the state moratorium was lifted allowing for public harvest for the first time in 21 years. 

 A crowd of net-bearing and bucket-holding herring permitholders came early to the flume in West Harwich planning to secure a location along the edge of the fish ladder that leads from the Herring River into the West Reservoir. The official opening on this gray and misty afternoon was 1 p.m., but there was a crowd by noon.

The town of Harwich put in place a moratorium on the taking of herring in 2004 after seeing several years of diminished migration of anadromous fish heading to spawning ponds up river. The state followed with a statewide moratorium the following year. 

Harwich, after completing a Sustainable Fishery Management Plan in 2022, this year became the first town in the state allowed to reopen its herring run to public harvest. The run was initially scheduled to reopen on April 12, but cold weather slowing the herring migration caused a postponement to this past Sunday. The town made 150 herring harvest permits available.

 “It’s very exciting,” said Natural Resources Director Stephanie Ridenour as she stood counting fish in buckets used by the permitholders to contain their catch, making sure no one was exceeding the 20-count limit placed on the harvest.

There was one early starter to the harvest, Krystal Wilkinson, a local resident and member of the Webster Wampanoag Tribe, who has indigenous rights to fish the rivers of Massachusetts with no limits on harvest numbers. 

 “We had some indigenous harvest people before the start and that was nice to see,” said Ridenour. 

Wilkinson said she would be freezing some of her herring and placing some in the herb garden to help the plants grow. Division of Marine Fisheries Diadromous Fish Project Leader Brad Chase, a Harwich resident, was also excited about the opening. Chase had a major hand in writing the Sustainable Fishery Management Plan, along with then natural resources director Heinz Proft. 

Chase said he was approached by one permitholder who said he was so happy to see the run open to public harvest. The man said he was collecting the herring for his 91-year-old mother, who had not had herring roe in more than 20 years. 

 “This is what it’s all about, old practices and a treat in springtime,” said Chase, who initially said he proposed a harvest for food only, but there are a number of other uses.

Chase said herring roe is a treat, and some people brine and smoke them, but a lot of the herring will be used for bait and people will use them for garden fertilizer.

Bob Parr was stretching over the side of the flume pushing his net into the run. Parr and his wife, Lynne Zalesak, were taking turns netting the herring. Parr said the herring will be used for gardening, and he had a new azalea to plant.

Ricardo Maduro and his son Dimitri came down from Kingston - they have a family house in Brewster- using one of the 30 non-resident permits issued to harvest herring.

The herring were flowing in spurts. On Saturday, the DMF electronic fish counter registered 29,825 fish that made it through the flume that day, and by 2 p.m. on Sunday another 9,591 headed into the West Reservoir. The total for the season at that point was 185,534 herring on their way to spawning waters.

Last year was a low year, Chase said of the seasonal count of 284,000 fish moving through the flume. Given the numbers at this point, he predicted an average year, which is about 550,000 fish.

The flume was open for harvest again on Monday afternoon for three hours and the next day of harvest will be Monday, April 27 from 9 a.m. to noon.