144th Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society

August 17 - 21, 2014

Blueback herring Alosa aestivalis and alewife Alosa pseudoharengus are anadromous fish collectively referred to as river herring.  Their importance to the marine and freshwater ecosystems and economies along the east coast of North America is well known.  Fisheries for river herring are one of the oldest in North America and are well-documented in both Native American and colonial cultures.   In 1960, off-shore fleets began harvesting river herring at sea.  Commercial landings began to decline significantly by the late 1970s due to loss of habitat, lack of passage around dams during spawning migrations, overfishing, and predation.  NOAA Fisheries has designated river herring as a Species of Concern and as such are developing a long-term conservation plan that considers threats, research, conservation efforts, and coordinated approaches to address data gaps.  To accelerate the restoration and conservation of river herring, research is necessary on the many factors that affect this species complex to facilitate population recovery.  As such, the purpose of this symposium is to synthesize the growing body of research on the multiple stressors that impact river herring throughout its range and across all life history stages.  We seek presentations that will inform this effort, particularly new research that spans broad spatial and temporal scales, considers the effects of climate change, documents successful restoration efforts, encompasses multiple life history stages, and provides new insight into the population structure and dynamics of these diadromous species throughout their range.  Talks that focus on other Northwest Atlantic diadromous fish stocks where the findings are applicable to river herring are also encouraged.