The herring are coming! The herring are coming!

In case you're living in the Boston area and looking for something to do today, why not check out the 8th Annual Mystic River Herring Run Festival at Blessing of the Bay Boathouse in Somerville? The event celebrates the return of the herring to Boston streams and rivers in order to spawn and heralds the arrival of the striped bass that feed upon them. During this time, people living along the river are able to catch dozens of herring in a single day, which they then eat or use or sell for bait. It's kind of neat that Somerville has revived what I'm sure was an age-old tradition in the days before industrialization, when said herring came as a welcome sign of Spring (and as a cheap and plentiful food source) after a harsh New England Winter. I wonder what fish run up the Danvers river close to our home? Hmm.