Improved Herring?

322.6.17
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Resolution that prohibits the stateside harvest, possession, or sale of herring through 2008. Lucky for me, I know a herring dealer -- actually, it's a grocery store that sells salted herring. (I assume it's a different species that comes from out of state, and that this is an entirely legal operation.) I tried it once, and only once, a couple of months ago. I can't say I recommend it. Not for humans, anyway.

400,000
Estimated number of alewife herring that pass through the Bournedale Herring Run each year. In recent years, that number declined sharply -- hence the above-mentioned law. There may be some good news for herring lovers, though. A man I spoke to at the Bournedale Herring Run today said he saw more of them swimming by the culvert on the Cape Cod Canal than he's seen in years. They were splashing around the entrance to the run, and trying to muscle each other out of the way.

0
Number of alewife herring I saw going aerial and leaping up the steps in the fish-ladder at Bournedale today. I did see some swimming in the pools beneath some of the steps, apparently waiting to summon up the strength to leap to the next step. But no leaping fish in sight -- one's odds are supposedly better if one goes at high tide.