Assessing river herring nursery habitat in Albemarle Sound tributaries using otolith chemistry

River herring stocks in North Carolina have been declining for more than 25 years. Important river herring nursery habitat must be identified to ensure that harvest moratoriums and other recovery efforts are successful. Tributaries that produce more adult recruits are considered important nursery habitat. We used otolith microchemistry to identify natal origins of adult and juvenile river herring in tributaries of the Albemarle Sound, North Carolina. Water samples and caging studies were used to identify chemical signatures for specific tributaries. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to analyze the core of adult and juvenile otoliths. We found that adult river herring could be assigned to specific nursery watersheds in Albemarle Sound. Tributaries that had minimal anthropogenic effects had the highest number of returning adults and should be considered the most important nursery areas. In addition, we found that regardless of nursery quality juveniles resided in specific locations; few were considered transient during the first year of life.