River Herring

This program is a collaboration between the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center and Woods Hole Sea Grant.

 

Background

River herring (alewife or blueback herring) are migratory fish that range along the East Coast from Florida to Maine.  They are diadromous fish meaning they spend part of their lives in saltwater and part of their lives in freshwater. There are 13 diadromous species in Massachusetts, including river herring, American eels, Atlantic sturgeon, American shad and more.  Each spring, millions of river herring migrate to Massachusetts rivers returning to where they were born to lay their eggs.  The young fish will stay in the freshwater until they are mature enough to migrate to estuaries (where the freshwater meets the saltwater).  Eventually, adults will head out into the saltwater to eat and get bigger.

River herring are a key species within the food chain for other recreational and commercial fish, such as cod, haddock and striped bass. Their declining numbers due to predation, bycatch, and other human-made obstacles have been observed in recent years. Herring themselves feed on zooplankton, small fish, and the eggs and larvae of other species.

Herring are not jumpers, so obstacles such as dams and culverts can cause significant problems in their ability to successfully reach their spawning grounds. Fish ladders are often not that effective at offering the fish an alternative to getting by the dams. They are better than nothing - but sometimes the fish have a hard time finding the entrance, or swimming up the ladder if the water flows are too fast or if there are flood or drought conditions. They are most successful when they are traveling along streams and rivers that have overhanging vegetation that provides shade and protection from predators. Rocky bottoms allow for greater camouflage with their darker colors. Herring are schooling fish and will move together in groups as they travel up and down the rivers. Out in the ocean, they also maintain their numbers as a way to provide safety.

In the third grade activity, you will explore the different stages of a herring’s life, and what they might be doing during different times of the year as they grow and mature, and eventually return to their birth places to spawn their own young.

In the seventh grade activity, you will follow the path of your fish as it journeys up Town Brook to its spawning grounds. You will be given data for one fish in 2018 when the dam was still in place and one fish in 2019 after the dam was removed. You will track your fish and then answer questions about its journey and discuss the ecological implications.

Lesson Plans and Activity Sheets/Handouts

Grade 3 - River herring life cycle

Lesson Plan

Life Cycle Wheel Template

Grades 7 - Telemetry

Lesson Plan

River Herring Telemetry Worksheet

 Materials for 2018 - Dam in place

• Class set of fish tracks
• Town Brook Map
• Answer Key

 Materials from 2019 - Dam removed

• Class set of fish tracks
• Town Brook Map
• Answer Key

This lesson meets the following NGSS/Mass STE Standards, and Ocean Literacy Principles

• Grades 3:
  1. NGSS - 3-LS1-1. Develop models to describe that organisms have unique and diverse life cycles but all have in common birth, growth, reproduction, and death.
  2. Mass STE -3-LS1-1. Use simple graphical representations to show that different types of organisms have unique and diverse life  cycles. Describe that all organisms have birth, growth, reproduction, and death in common but there are a variety of ways in which these happen.
  3. Mass STE - 3-LS4-4. Analyze and interpret given data about changes in a habitat and describe how the changes may affect the ability of organisms that live in that habitat to survive and reproduce.
  4. Ocean Literacy Principle 5: The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.
  5.  Ocean Literacy Principle 6: The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected.
• Grades 7:
  1. NGSS - MS-LS2-4. Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
  2. Mass STE - MS-LS2-4. Analyze data to provide evidence that disruptions (natural or human-made) to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations.
  3. Ocean Literacy Principle 5: The ocean supports a great diversity of life and ecosystems.
  4.  Ocean Literacy Principle 6: The ocean and humans are inextricably interconnected.