Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Fish & Wildlife
This October, NJDEP Fish & Wildlife Bureau of Marine Fisheries concluded the young-of-year portion of their annual River Herring Population Assessment Survey. This survey was initiated in 2013 to provide New Jersey-specific data on alewife and blueback herring (collectively, river herring) populations following an ASMFC stock assessment that found both species to be depleted on the east coast. The young-of-year component of this larger population assessment utilizes a 100-foot seine net to target juvenile river herring that were spawned in the spring. The data collected during this survey is used to generate an index of species abundance, which serves to inform future Fishery Management Plans.
