Dwindling Herring and Clearing the Coastline 

U Conn Professor Matt McKenzie & Patrick Paquette, striped bass fishing community organizer, say where all the herring have gone, and how Cape Cod fisheries have changed over the centuries. McKenzie tells the social and ecological history of the rise and demise coastal fisheries in the 19th century. His book: Clearing the Coastline, includes Thoreau’s thoughts on Cape Cod fisheries and how these changed after his death. Matt also tells of helping out a family’s herring weirs on Cape Cod and of a fisherman well known to Paquette. Patrick explains early efforts to save herring through the CHOIR collaboration “where different voices needed to learn to sing in harmony.” He also noted a striped bass food shortage along the East Coast caused by industrial-scale fishing of coastal herring, mackerel and menhaden. 

NMFS and the New England Fishery Mgmt Council failed to take measures to stem the decline of sea herring, river herring, and shad populations. Visit OceanRiver.org for how you can take action with others to save herring. 

Matthew McKenzie, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor and American Studies Coordinator, University of Connecticut, Avery Point. He took his PhD in Maritime History from the U New Hampshire in 2003. As a PhD candidate, he worked with UNH’s Gulf of Maine Cod Project, an interdisciplinary team of historians and fisheries scientists exploring ecological change in the 19th century Scotian Shelf cod-fishery. In 2003, McKenzie began teaching Maritime Studies at the Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, Mass., during which time he sailed offshore in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. At sea, he taught while also filling in as Assistant Engineer, deckhand, and science deck lackey. He came to UConn’s Avery Point campus in August, 2006, where his position as American Studies Program Coordinator has pulled his interests closer inshore. McKenzie's book is Clearing the Coastline: The Nineteenth Century Ecological and Cultural Transformation of Cape Cod (University Press of New England, 2011). 

Captain Patrick Paquette is a Recreational Fishing Advocate, Outdoor Writer, Charter Captain (USCG Master's License),Tournament Fisherman and is a past president of the 60 year old MA Striped Bass Association with over twenty five combined boat & shore tournament awards on his resume.  Born in the city of Boston Massachusetts, Paquette was taught to fish by his father as a young child in the middle of the Striped Bass collapse. He mated on head boats and surf fished with brothers growing up. He is today an accomplished outdoor writer and has penned the Traveling Surfcaster Column for On the Water Magazine.  Patrick has designed an exclusive "how to" seminar based solely on the species, equipment and techniques used to fish the waters of Massachusetts. He includes a range of information that promises to educate all anglers from the first time beginner to the seasoned veteran.