We are just about at the 1/2 way mark for our 2025 herring count. We send a HUGE thank you to our more than 80 volunteers for the counting they’ve done so far. With another month+ to go, we just wanted to share some of what we’ve seen through early April.
We also encourage new volunteers to Sign up to count at one or more sites here!
Herring Brook in Pembroke: The cool early spring saw the run begin in fits and starts. Now that we have some warm sunny days the water is heating up and the fish are coming on strong. Herring Run Park has been packed with fish this week. It’s been fun to see so many families and kids coming to check out the migration. At our counting location our volunteers have been counting hundreds of fish per 10 minute count. The electronic counter has already recorded more than 270,000 fish going past!
First Herring Brook in Scituate: We have fish!! Multiple volunteers have recorded fish going up the ladder, even with the notched board in at the top of the fish ladder that the water suppliers required to conserve water when we were in a drought earlier this year. And others have reported good size schools below the ladder. After many years where we saw no fish at all here, we are in our second year of seeing a steady migration.
South River in Marshfield: The fish are finally in! A special thanks to our South River volunteers. We know that it hasn’t been easy this year with all of the construction. The South River herring population is dominated by blueback herring. These fish tend to show up a little later than the alewives. So it’s no surprise that we are just seeing them now. This is the time that it’s important to get as many volunteers there as possible. By mid-July the river will be directed back to its normal location now that the dam has been removed. A note about fish counts in streams where dams have been removed – while dam removal provides more access to spawning habitat it makes it harder to actually see and count fish when we remove obstructions as they are no longer backing up like a congested highway. In addition, their populations are low in part due to the dams so give them time and keep looking!
Third Herring Brook: No fish seen at the counting site yet. Like the South River, we know that the species of herring in this brook (Blueback Herring) tend to run a little later in the season. An osprey was seen snagging a herring out of Third Herring Brook a little further down stream of where we do our counts. So we know they are around. And one of our volunteers recently spotted an otter swimming at our counting site! Otters love eating herring, so this could be a sign that the fish are in. Again keep looking! More eyes, more chances of seeing fish in these recovering streams.
Bound Brook: This continues to be our most challenging site and is a stream where a dam was removed. Thanks to our volunteers for sticking with it and also getting creative about searching for fish in other stretches of the brook upstream where there are obstructions still.
Meanwhile, some of our local runs including Weymouth and Kingston are suffering from the impacts of drought and public water supply management. On the Jones River in Kingston it’s an unfortunate and sad story. For the second year in a row, thousands of fish headed into the Jones. However, this year Silver Lake has been sucked down to the point that there is literally no flow to the river. The fish have diverted their course in an attempt to make it upstream and are now stranded at the base of an old dam in Pine Brook. Jones River Watershed Association may rally a volunteer “hand lift” to get them into the pond above. We told them that we’d be there to help, so stay tuned!