Holding on to Historic Managers: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Extension Work with Massachusetts River Herring Wardens.

Archer, Abigail¹, Robert Vincent², ¹Woods Hole Sea Grant & Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, Barnstable, MA, ²MA Institute of Technology Sea Grant, Cambridge, MA

Extension is an academic discipline that began in 1916 with the creation of the Agricultural Extension Service, and then expanded to include marine science topics in 1966 with the creation of the Sea Grant College Program. Sea Grant Marine Extension Agents serve as educators who apply science-based information to problems experienced by coastal and marine stakeholders. The Woods Hole and MIT Sea Grant Programs have been partnering with river herring wardens in Massachusetts. Most coastal towns in MA have employed river herring wardens since the 1700s to regulate harvest of anadromous Alosa aestivalis and Alosa pseudoharengus and keep the rivers free of passage restrictions. In the 1990s river herring populations experienced sharp declines which caused the MA Division of Marine Fisheries to institute a moratorium in 2006 on in-river harvest. In 2011 the “River Herring Network” was formed to facilitate communication among wardens, state and federal fish biologists, academic researchers, and community science volunteer herring counters. Participation remains strong and in 2022 the thirteenth annual meeting was held. Issues identified by the wardens have included communication with the MA Department of Transportation, the need to educate school aged children about stewardship of river herring runs, recruitment of new herring wardens, controlling aquatic invasive species (AIS) in spawning ponds, and dealing with drought conditions in highly managed river systems. Responding to education, training, and communications needs has had some success. Translating questions about the interactions of AIS management and juvenile river herring into formal scientific studies has been challenging