Spatial and temporal genetic stock composition of river herring bycatch in southern New England Atlantic herring and mackerel fisheries

Anadromous river herring (alewife and blueback herring) persist at historically low abundances and are caught as by-catch in commercial fisheries, potentially preventing recovery despite conservation efforts. We used newly established single-nucleotide polymorphism genetic baselines for alewife and blueback herring to define fine-scale reporting groups for each species. We then determined the occurrence of fish from these reporting groups in bycatch samples from a Northwest Atlantic fishery over four years. Within sampled bycatch events, the highest proportions of alewife were from the Block Island (34%) and Long Island Sound (22%) reporting groups, while for blueback herring the highest proportions were from the Mid-Atlantic (47%) and Northern New England (24%) reporting groups. We then quantified stock-specific mortality in a focal geographic area (similar to 3500 km2, including Block Island Sound) of high bycatch incidence and sampling effort, where the most accurate esti-mates of mortality could be made. During this period, we estimate that bycatch took about 4.6 million alewife and 1.2 million blueback herring, highlighting the need to reduce bycatch mortality for the most depleted river herring stocks.

Automated summary

Anadromous river herring (alewife and blueback herring) are persistently low in abundance and are caught as by-catch in commercial fisheries, hindering their recovery. By using genetic data, specific reporting groups were identified for each species. Bycatch samples from a Northwest Atlantic fishery revealed that the highest proportions of alewife were from the Block Island and Long Island Sound reporting groups, while for blueback herring, the highest proportions were from the Mid-Atlantic and Northern New England reporting groups. Bycatch mortality estimates in a focal geographic area indicated that 4.6 million alewife and 1.2 million blueback herring were caught, emphasizing the need to reduce bycatch mortality for depleted river herring stocks.