Herring count up this year at three local runs 8-8-17

Herring count up this year at three local runs

The Patriot Ledger

Posted Aug 8, 2017 at 6:45 AM
Updated Aug 8, 2017 at 9:24 AM

Volunteers for the North and South Rivers Watershed Association counted 11,341 fish during this spring's spawning run on the Third Herring Brook in Norwell and Hanover, Herring Brook in Pembroke and the South River in Marshfield.

At Herring Brook, 7,649 herring were tallied, the second highest total ever. Herring Brook is the only location where substantial counts and the presence of a fish ladder allow a provisional population estimate to be made, and the watershed association estimates a total population of roughly 91,000 this year.

Counts were conducted in the Third Herring Brook at three sites: River Street and Broadway, the Tack Factory site and at Mill Pond. The most fish ever seen at the River and Broadway location, roughly 2,600, were seen this year.

Fewer than 1,000 fish were counted at the South River.

Volunteers also went to First Herring Brook in Scituate, but no herring were seen. Numbers have been low in this spot for the past few years, and the association will be working with the town of Scituate to expand potential habitat by improving access to the reservoir.

In 2006, the National Marine Fisheries Service designated river herring, which play an important role in the marine food chain, as a species of concern.

Read the report. For more information or to volunteer for next year's counts, visit nsrwa.org.