SO Called ‘River’ Herring Spends Most of life at Sea

April 18, 2022April 18, 2022 | Chelsea

So JUST between us mammals…..

The River Herring are a group of fish that are similar to salmon, they travel between freshwater and saltwater throughout their lives. Given their namesake perhaps you would assume the RIVER herring spend most of their lives in rivers but you would be WRONG! These so-called ‘River’ Herring actually spend most of their lives in the ocean.

Blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis) USFWS

The term River Herring refers to two closely related species, the alewife (scientific name: Alosa pseudoharengus) and the blueback herring (scientific name: Alosa aestivalis). These fish have a wide range that extends along almost the entire eastern seaboard of North America. They’re grouped together as the river herring because they have a very similar life history and are quite difficult to tell apart.

So why are these fish called RIVER herring if they live in the ocean?!

It’s likely that early North Americans primarily interacted with river herring when they migrated into coastal estuaries, rivers, and streams during their annual spawning run. River herring migrate into freshwater from the sea in the springtime when the water gets warm. Back when river herring were abundant, personal accounts documenting their spawning runs described the rivers as teeming with billions of fish. Early North Americans would take advantage of the predictability of this spawning run to catch and preserve fish. This stock of food was incredibly important and a strong harvest meant survival through the long and cold northeastern winters.

What are some other names for river herring?

Since these fish live anywhere from rivers in Canada to streams in Florida, they’ve been called a lot of different names: bigeye herring, branch herring, freshwater herring, gaspereau, grayback, gray herring, kyak, sawbelly, white herring, buckie, and buckey (Narrow River Preservation Association). While the origin of some of these names is based on what this fish looks like, or where they were found, others have more interesting or even mysterious origins!

Gaspereau comes from the Arcadian french and the origins of this word for river herring are unknown. First documented by W.F. Ganong in 1910:

“Gaspereau, or Gasparot. Name of a common salt-water fish of Acadia (also called alewife), first used, so far as I can find, by Denys in 1672. Nowhere can I find any clue to its origin. It seems not to be [indigenous].”
W.F. Ganong, 1910

Sawbelly is another common name for river herring, though some sources only assigned it to the alewife. This name was likely given to the fish because of its sharp serrated underbelly (URI).

Preparing to go fishing. Picture from: Mi’kmaw Spirit

Kyak or Kiack is the word for river herring in the Mi’kmaw people’s language. The Mi’kmaw are a loose confederacy of semi-nomadic tribes across northeastern Canada. Historically, Mi’kmaw villages relied on the sea and rivers for up to 90% of their food (Mi’kmaw Spirit). They relied on the annual migration of river herring and similarly related species and would catch these fish using fish weirs. Fish weirs are a V-shaped tunnel made of wood or rock that would force the fish into a narrow passage where they could be caught with nets or baskets. Kejimkujik National Park was recognized as a National Historic Site in 2002 due to the millennia of Mi’kmaw history connected to the region.

I was unable to find information on some of the other names like buckie/buckey, perhaps this one came from “big-eye herring”?

Do you know any names for the river herring that aren’t listed here? Let us know in the comments!

My Current Research: Detecting River Herring Using the Water they Swim through

April 7, 2022May 6, 2022 | Chelsea

Research Focus (ABT):

River herring are an important migratory species that travel in and out of coastal bays and their associated rivers at different stages in their life cycle. These fish were once so abundant they would migrate inland up and down the coast of North America in billions. This massive migration was an important resource to humans tracing back thousands of years, additionally, these fish also provide numerous ecosystem services to riparian, estuarine, and ocean environments.

However, overfishing, habitat loss, and declining water quality have caused severe reductions in their populations to the point where they are no longer able to support large-scale fishing efforts. As an anadromous species, population monitoring is recommended on a per river basis but continuous monitoring of every river where these fish occur is unrealistic for management agencies with limited resources.

Therefore we employ a quicker, cheaper, and less labor-intensive methodology based on the premise that fish shed DNA in the form of scales, feces, and mucus into their environment, and that we can measure this environmental DNA (eDNA) in the water using highly sensitive molecular tools. Using a local population of river herring, we measured the amount of river herring eDNA present in water samples on a daily basis throughout the 2021 river herring spawning run. We compared our eDNA results to fish count data taken during the same season to evaluate the effectiveness of eDNA monitoring tools on river herring populations.

Indonesia: Diving in the Bali Sea

August 31, 2018August 30, 2018 | Chelsea

“Your dives will be 1.6 million rupiah” the secretary at Gecko Dive Center doesn’t bat an eyelash as she rattles off this jarring number.

The mere suggestion of a million of anything is enough to make my stomach drop. That’s insane! ONE MILLION?!

Of course, 1 USD is equivalent to about 14,000 IDR so in fact the prices were quite reasonable. We double checked the conversions and shelled out the rupiah to dive in the Bali sea off of Penida island between Bali and Lombok. And it was worth. Every. Last. Rupiah…

We met our dive guide Maid (pronounced: Maddy) at 8am and enjoyed the island time as we slowly got our gear together and headed out for the day. When we took off I found the ride rather rough, but Maid assured me that it was a nice day and the ride wasn’t bad at all!

When we neared Penida island we approached a few other boats that were casually smoking cigarettes as they guarded a capsized boat with it’s props in the air. None of the Indonesians on our boat really give it much thought, we later asked Maid about the boat and we had to remind him.

‘You know, that boat we saw this morning that was flipped over?’

He says with a big ole smile, with no signs of concern in his voice, that it must have capsized this morning. Dani and I just shrugged it off and checked out our dive gear.

GOPR8481_Moment(2)

We arrived at our dive site, Manta Point. The dive site was below a sharp cliff, and the water was choppy as it bounced off the land and back towards the dozens of boats floating in the area. Manta Point is a cleaning station for reef manta rays of the Bali Sea. Manta rays are a migratory species so while some can get up to 5.5 meters (18 feet) in width, and up to 1.4 tons (2,800 pounds) (arkive.org), they can be hard to spot unless you know which reefs they visit.

The manta rays come to Manta Point to be cleaned by the reef fish. They glide over the reef, and the fish come out of the crevices and rocks to pick parasites off of the manta’s body. This is a symbiotic relationship because both the manta ray and the reef fish benefit. The manta rays get rid of potentially harmful parasites, while the reef fish get a meal delivered to their doorstep for free! This makes manta point a hot spot for diving, which was clear by the number of boats bobbing up and down in the water.

GOPR8481_Moment

We jumped in the water and hung out near a small seamount, where the reef fish sat waiting for their daily doorstop service. We could feel the swells of the ocean’s surface up above as we bobbed up and down in the water column. We also sat eagerly awaiting, for a second I wondered if this is how the reef fish felt.

Suddenly a manta appeared from behind the seamount! It sailed over the divers with such ease. As I followed the one with my eyes, I turned back to the start to find one swimming directly at me. With thoughtless effort the ray rose just above me, just missing the top of my head. Manta rays flap their triangular pectoral ‘wings’ to propel themselves forward, and they have little mouthparts that protrude forward, called cephalic lobes. They appear to fly through the water column flapping their wings lazily and drift to the deep like a bird that has caught a steady updraft. They’re playful animals and as they approach one another they seem to dance around. Two smaller mantas encircle a larger one like children running at an adult’s feet. As they swam around they playfully tossed their cephalic lobes back and forth as if to simply entertain themselves, like an elephant playing with it’s trunk. Unlike other animals commonly spotted during a dive, their presence lost no novelty as the minutes ticked by.

GOPR8481_Moment(3)

We swam along the reef and spotted several smaller rays on the reef as well. These rays however move by undulating their pectoral fins. In other words, the mantas look like they’re flying underwater, while these smaller rays look like the edges of their body are creating waves that circulate around their entire body. When we surfaced we were absolutely ecstatic unable to even count how many manta rays we saw.

When we returned to land we were coaxed into doing a night dive at Blue Lagoon.

Night dives can be a little eerie. As you sink below the surface of the water, the reef that was seemingly playful during the day, is run by entirely different group at night. Swimming through the dark, you begin to realize what a scary place the ocean can be at night. You see the fish from the day hidden in the crevices of the rocks and corals. In the back of your mind you wonder…should I be hiding from what they’re hiding from?!

GOPR8607_Moment

During the day, I like to turn away from the reef and look out into the ocean. It’s a deep blue color and looks like it goes on forever. At night it’s black, even with an almost full moon, the sea remains black. During a night dive you have a torch, and while flashlights on land can light up an entire area, underwater torches only light up one spot. The lamp creates a well-defined circle in the sand, and the edges of the light are met by immediate darkness. I shine my light out into the sea beyond the reef, into the blackness, to see what I can see. Thousands of little organisms’ eyes reflect off of the light and they scatter as I follow them with the lamp. I turn my back to the darkness and avoid thinking about the large predators out there somewhere hidden in the darkness of the ocean at night. I direct my light back to the reef, and see a whole new community of organisms, wide awake.

GOPR8610_Moment

While many fish are asleep, the draw of a night dive is that you see an entirely new group of marine organisms that hide during the day. My favorite creatures we saw on this dive were the small cuttlefish. Cuttlefish are a type of cephalopod. This means they’re related to octopus. Cuttlefish have chromatophores in their skin that allow them to change colors. They use this ability for camouflage during the day. One can swim completely by a well-disguised cuttlefish that looks like just another rock. At night, they use this ability to lure their prey close. The flashes of black and white run down the length of it’s body and it’s tentacles pulse the colors as well. Once it’s prey wanders close enough to it’s beak, it snatches it’s prey out of the water with all of it’s tentacles like a lizard’s tongue! Luckily they can’t hunt humans because I was completely mesmerized by the cuttlefish and followed them for much of the dive. Other active predators during a night dive include sharks and octopus.

GOPR8611_Moment(4)

As we swam along we came across a small coral catshark that darted in and out of rocks and corals looking for dinner. We also saw a whitetip reef shark swiftly swimming close to the reef trying to spot an easy catch. There were a few other species we still haven’t been able to identify!

GOPR8611_Moment

We came up to the surface absolutely thrilled once again, and I decided it was the best day of diving I had ever done. Little did I know that in a few days time we would get luck enough to hop on a day trip to Sipadan island in Malaysian Borneo, a spot that has been recognized as THE best dive site in the world….but more on that later! 😉

P.S. check out the videos on my Facebook post, they completely surpass the photos! (WordPress won’t allow me to share videos without a premium account)

Filipino Palengke

August 22, 2016January 9, 2022 | Chelsea

PEACE CORPS CBT: A WALK THROUGH THE PALENGKE

Walking through a Filipino Palengke for the first time is an explosion of sensory experiences. The warehouse is open on all sides and the aisles are lit only with ambient light from the city outside. It takes a second for our eyes to adjust from the strong Philippines’ sunlight to the dimly lit market aisles. The pungent smell of fish, meat, and produce, sourly climbs up our noses, but our brains are so busy with our other senses the smell seems to fade. The cracked, chipped and discolored white tile counters are filled with fish of every color and size. Each vendor has their own small bare florescent light bulb illuminating their counter.

We shimmy around one another in the crowded aisles and are sprayed from either side by fish scales and salt water. The Tilapia vendor lets close to 30 fish flop across his counter. In an attempt to escape, one throws itself on to the concrete floor of the market. I scoop him up and my stomach turns a little as I return him to the counter, where he waits to be de-scaled and gutted alive. The other fish lay dead in humongous piles on the tile. Almost every fish you could possibly imagine has passed through this market.

Barracudas, that must have been equivalent to the length of the vessel they came into port on, tuna heads bigger than my own head, beautiful watercolored Parrotfish the size of dinner platters. Cross sections of Morray eel’s whom, when they were whole, must have resembled the sea serpent that slithered through your childhood nightmares. Hundreds of lapu-lapu (grouper) bright red with metallic blue flecks concentrated at their heads and scattered across their bodies. As we walked through the market I realized I had never seen most of these fish out of the water and how many of them seemed significantly bigger here, than they did under the sea.

Fruits, vegetables, leaves, roots, and spices hang, drape and pile on every open surface.

As we walk deeper into the warehouse past the fish vendors we come upon the the prutas at gulay (fruits and vegetables) stands. Their stands have many tiers. Fruits, vegetables, leaves, roots, and spices hang, drape and pile on every open surface. The fruits are strange, and one vendor rip open red fuzzy fruits for us to try. The flesh is white and so sweet we decide to buy a kilo, 90P lang. Collecting new fruits and vegetables along the way we walk even further to the carne vendors. These stands are far from the ambient light of the city but they still glow bright red and I get that eerily feeling that we’re walking into a horror movie. Every part of the animal hangs from giant silver hooks or is set out on silver platters. The vendors wear a white apron stained pink by their work and swing a giant cleaver to chop up kilos of meat.

We approached the smiling vendors and watched as their eyes widened when we said ‘Magkano ito’ (how much is this)

We approached the smiling vendors and watched as their eyes widened when we said ‘Magkano ito’ (how much is this). They laughed ‘You speak Tagalog?!’. ‘Konti lang, konti lang’ (just a little, just a little). It went on like this for a few hours before we walked back into the Philippines’ sun to leave the market. Our brains were tired and our stomach’s growled at the ingredients in our arms. We made our way back to our small, quiet, peaceful Barangay with arms full of ingredients to make fish tacos (we’re all experiencing a bit of a Mexican food withdrawal). As we cooked up our tortillas and fish, we snacked on the weird little red fruits and decided there is nothing quite like a Filipino Palengke.