Pacific Herring

• Cornerstone of northern nearshore marine ecosystems
• Important for traditional cultures
• Valuable to commercial fishing industry

Research Themes

• Prince William Sound Herring Recruitment

  Are the low post oil-spill recruitment patterns unique to PWS, or are they are within the expected range of historical and regional natural variability?

  2006 Backwater Research Report to the National Marine Fisheries Service: Pacific Herring Recruitment Time Series from Prince William Sound, Alaska, Compared to Herring Elsewhere on the West Coast of North America: Is Low Recruitment a Problematic Constraint in Prince William Sound?

• History of Southeast Alaska Herring Fisheries, a Backwater Research Report

  This project examines historical catch records and impacts of the herring reduction plants that operated in Alaska in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as the biological surveys of herring going back to the early 20th century. This project is one element of a larger NPRB project to synthesize herring-related information gathered from the archaeological, ethno-ecological, historical European, climatic, and other records. Published results from this herring synthesis project include:

  • Local and Traditional Knowledge and the Historical Ecology of Pacific Herring in Alaska
    (Citation: Thornton, Thomas F.; Moss, Madonna L.; Butler, Virginia L.; Hebert, Jamie; and Funk, Fritz. "Local and Traditional Knowledge andthe Historical Ecologyof Pacific Herring in Alaska."Journal of Ecological Anthropology14, no. 1 (2010): 81-88)