Proponents of the Herring River Restoration Project have heralded the environmental benefits of the project. The Cape Cod National Seashore in its online description of the project (updated October 25, 2923) asserted: "River herring will return to once again spawn in Herring, Higgins, and Gull Ponds." Yet, in a November 2023 newsletter (see below), the Friends of Herring River reported that the 2023 herring count in the estuary (long before any restoration of tides) was the highest since volunteer monitoring of herring began in Wellfleet in 2009. This information roundly contradicts the Seashore's assertion that "herring will return to once again spawn."
This clearly false assertion by one of the project's principals raises the specter that other purported ecological benefits of the Herring River Restoration Project may have been exaggerated, misrepresented, or perhaps even made-up, as the above example suggests. (See "Misleading Claim.")
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