Seasonal Movements of Atlantic Herring (Clupea harengus): Results From a Four Year Tagging Study Conducted in the Gulf of Maine and Southern New England

Abstract

This paper presents results from a four year tagging effort on Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) in the waters off the east coast of the United States. This study was designed to describe seasonal movements and evaluate new live capture methods for mobile gear using an aquarium codend. A total of 85 561 Atlantic herring were tagged and released in two strata; the Gulf of Maine during the summer feeding/spawning period and Southern New England during the winter feeding period. The return rate, adjusted for reporting, was 2.6% and the patterns of returns largely reflected results from previous tagging studies in the US and Canada. The two main contributions of this work to the established body of herring tagging literature are: (1) the identification of current seasonal movements, including the migration of Atlantic herring from Southern New England in the winter to Nova Scotia in the summer, and (2) the implementation of a capture technique for midwater trawl gear and the ability this provided the researchers to successfully tag Atlantic herring on their winter feeding grounds as far south as Cape May, NJ.