ROCHESTER — Alewives Anonymous, a local organization that supports efforts to increase the herring population in Tri-Town waters, has released herring migration figures for 2024.

Electronic fish counters were installed on the Mattapoisett River at Snipatuit Pond and on the Sippican River at Leonard's Pond, according to Arthur Benner, president of Alewives Anonymous.

Fish were counted during March, April and May on the Mattapoisett River and April, May and June on the Sippican River.

The 2024 count of herring in the Mattapoisett River was 9,353, a more than 50% increase from the total recorded in 2023 of 4,050.

Herring were going into Snipatuit Pond before the counter was set up, and there was a three week period during the counting season where, because of high water, fish “could go up the west bay” as well as bypass the counter in the east bay, “which may have added a significant amount to the total recorded by the counter,” Benner said.

The fish counter on the Sippican River recorded 45 in 2024.

The water level at Leonard’s Pond was too low for the counter to function for the first eight days it was installed, according to Benner.

The low counts recorded on other days “are unlikely to have been herring but pond and river fish,” Benner said.

“We can only draw the conclusion that there were no herring that entered Leonard’s Pond this year,” Benner said.

Massachusetts banned the harvest of river herring in 2006. In the years since the moratorium was put into effect, the herring count in the Mattapoisett River had risen to more than 55,400 in 2014, which was then followed by years of declining counts, according to Alewives Anonymous.

“The counting effort will continue and provide the necessary information to manage a future harvest in the Mattapoisett River,” and “continued improvements in the counts are needed to support a sustainable fishery plan and to justify an opening,” Benner said.

The herring count at Mattapoisett River is on a three-year upswing since 2021, according to Alewives Anonymous data.

Benner said harvesting could be resumed when “the herring population reaches a point where a sustainable harvest plan can be formulated,” filed and approved by the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries.