Both blueback and alewife are anadromous, living in salt and brackish marine areas as adults and returning to freshwater to spawn. Alewife and blueback can spend their entire life in freshwater, with reproducing populations established in impoundments. Alewife spawn earlier than blueback, with both migrating upstream in the spring like shad. Herring spawn in quieter, upper portions on streams and creeks, randomly releasing sticky eggs that sink and adhere to the bottom. The tiny eggs hatch in 2 to 3 days; young head for salt water when they are several months old.
It shall be unlawful for any person to possess aboard a vessel, on Virginia tidal waters, or to land, in Virginia, any river herring. Maryland closed its commercial shad fishery in In , the Potomac River Fisheries Commission a joint program of both states banned commercial fishing of shad in the Potomac River.
It took Virginia until to end commercial fishing for shad in the state's portion of the Chesapeake Bay and inland waters. The James River shad harvest in was only 3, pounds, compared to 1 million pounds two decades earlier. It closed the at-sea fishery for shad in The coastwide stock assessment will be updated in for American shad. The report: 5. The Natural Resources Defense Council and Earthjustice appealed the reject, and in a Federal judge required the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reconsider the petition.
A species status review determined that there were four "distinct population segments" of alewife on the East Coast, with the most-southern segment living between the Hudson River and the Alligator River in North Carolina. There are five distinct population segments of blueback herring. In the status review, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration again declined to list those two species as "threatened.
The survival of the species was expected because: 6. Many relatively robust populations of alewife exist, and genetic data show connectivity among populations genetic continuum along the coastline despite regional groupings. The latest report from the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission remained pessimistic about river herring: 7.
The stock assessment update indicates that river herring remain depleted at near historic lows on a coastwide basis. Commercial "bycatch" harvest of the American shad in the Chesapeake Bay and some Virginia rivers waters is permitted, but prohibited in the Atlantic Ocean.
River herring, including alewife Alosa psudoharengus and blueback herring Alosa aestivalis , once supported one of the oldest and most valuable fisheries in Virginia. Since the 's a substantial decline in the stocks of river herring coast wide was noted. Commercial landings for both species have declined dramatically from historic highs. The most recent stock assessment for river herring concluded that stocks coast wide are severely depleted ASMFC Due in part to lack of available fishery-independent data to address the question of sustainability, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission VMRC implemented a ban on the possession of alewife and blueback herring to begin January 1, The current regulation states, in part that "It shall be unlawful for any person to catch and retain possession of any river herring from Virginia tidal waters.
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