But it is herring that is dedicated to a special holiday – the Don Herring Day festival. This cultural and gastronomic event is held every year in May in the Ust-Donets district of the Rostov region. Pukhlyakovsky) and gathers guests, connoisseurs of local cuisine and lovers of fishing.
Why May? The Black Sea-Azov passing herring winters in the Black Sea, where it reaches the waters of Turkey. It returns to the Don and Danube rivers to spawn. In modern conditions, herring rises along the Don to the borders with the Voronezh region and is extremely rare, even slightly higher. However, its main spawning grounds are located below the Kochetovsky hydroelectric complex. In the Don, herring usually begins to appear in early April, although in the current 2026 year it is already at the end of March, but only in May in the Don it begins to be caught en masse with hooked gear allowed for amateur fishing. The herring caught in the Don, Taganrog Bay and Kerch Strait is distinguished by its taste. Every taste has its own connoisseurs. In addition to the passing herring, the Don also includes the Azov puffer, which has similar biological features, but outwardly differs in its smaller size and taller body.
Commercial herring fishing is conducted in the Black and Azov Seas, the Kerch Strait and the Don River. In the Don, specialized herring fishing is carried out using smaller-scale seines than for fishing other types of fish and is allowed from April 20 to May 31. The total commercial catch of herring is about 100-150 tons per year.
Herring is high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which are powerful antioxidants. These substances help slow down the aging process of the body, activate brain activity and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases, which makes it a valuable product for human health.
The Don herring is also a popular object of amateur fishing. The main method of fishing on the Don is fishing with artificial baits, when, for example, white or colored cambriks are put on the hook, on which migrating herring are very actively biting.
According to the Rules of fishing, in the Don and the Sea of Azov, herring can be caught with a size of at least 15 cm and no more than 5 kg per person per day, while no more than 10 kg can be removed from the reservoir, regardless of how much time the person spent in the reservoir.
To study the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the herring population, the Southern Branch of the SSC RF "All-Russian Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography" (VNIRO) conducts comprehensive scientific research. Accounting trawling and lampar surveys are carried out annually in the Sea of Azov, aimed at assessing fishing stocks and the results of natural reproduction of herring. In addition, juvenile fish are being counted in the Don River, where juvenile herring are also recorded. Commercial catches are being monitored in the Don and Kerch Strait, where, in addition to analyzing the size and composition of catches, material is being collected on the size and age structure of the herring population.
VNIRO Press Service
