Desalinating dried/smoked fish

In the metropolitan area where I live, there is truly a great selection of dried fish in various ethnic food stores, my favorite of which is herring. However, it is always very salty and I have a somewhat high blood pressure so the doc said keep my salt intake under control as well as I don't really like salty food very much.

Is the saltiness essential to the preparation of dried fish? Can the fish be as nicely dried/smoked without using so much salt? Finally, the most important question is, is there a way to desalinate the dried herrings that I otherwise like so much? E.g. I would make eggs with minced dried herring and not add any salt to the eggs, hoping that would neutralize the saltiness and the mix is still so salty I can barely eat it.