The Run

by Dianne Cowen Cape Cod Photography

Title

The Run

Artist

Dianne Cowen Cape Cod Photography

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Each year in Spring when the temperatures near 50 degrees, thousands of Herring make their way up through these fresh water falls to spawn. They come in from Cape Cod Bay and travel a great distance.
Although herring, or alewives, are not part of our regular diets today, in Colonial times they were a preferred catch. In addition to salting alewives in tubs of brine, early settlers served them fried and smoked. The fish also served as fertilizer for crops. Decades later, many considered alewives a �poor food fish" and are now used primarily as striped bass and lobster bait. Regardless, Cape Codders have always had a high esteem for these annual visitors and the excitement surrounding the run.
Members of the herring family, alewives were among the most abundant fishes in the world. They are found along the Atlantic Coast from Canada to Florida. Because of its large belly, many believe their name derives from the �alewives,� female tavern keepers of Elizabethan England. Adults range from 8-15 inches in length; they have large eyes, forked tails, silvery sides and gray-green backs.Herring are anadromous, meaning, while they are ocean-dwellers most of their lives, each year they return to the fresh water systems in which they were born to spawn�a wonderful signal of Spring on the Cape.
In April and early May, when our brooks and ponds are the right temperature (around 57 degrees), schools of herring navigate into fresh waters via natural and artificial courses. If you visit a herring run, you�ll see dark pools of fish waiting their turn to cross. Then, amid the mighty rush of the water, what look like flashes of silver leap the �ladders� that assist them in the final leg of their journey.
After spawning, the female alewife lays up to 100,000 eggs. The adults that survive predators, then return to the sea. Unlike West Coast salmon, all adult herring do not die during the migratory process. Many will return to the ocean while others will fall prey to gulls, man or the elements. Meanwhile, the eggs drift for two to three days before finally sinking, then stick to rocks and debris. Two or three days later, they hatch. By autumn, the young alewives follow the adults� paths to sea. When they reach sexual maturity, they will become part of the cyclical return to our freshwater ponds to spawn.

Uploaded

April 15th, 2016

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