The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission and NOAA Fisheries recently announced they are awarding approximately a quarter of a million dollars to two research projects. Information generated from these projects supports the continued development of a coastwide river herring (i.e., alewife and blueback herring) conservation plan.
Selected research projects include:
1. The Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the University of California-Santa Cruz in partnership with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, The Nature Conservancy, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit will receive $166,659 to collect biological samples and conduct genetic analysis on river herring caught in Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries.
2. Barnegat Bay Partnership and Rutgers University will receive $78,000 to conduct surveys and collect data to help improve the understanding of historic and current distribution of alewife and blueback herring spawning habitat in Barnegat Bay and Raritan River in New Jersey.
Priority areas for research funding included the need for more information on
* life history and spawning habitats to improve the effectiveness of fish passage and restoration efforts;
* impacts of fisheries on river herring and developing ways to reduce those impacts; and
* identifying the spawning region from which fish caught in ocean fisheries originate.
source: Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission