Volunteer River Herring Monitoring at Beaver Dam Brook and Manomet Brook

Hooray! We have fish! So far 36 river herring have been seen at Bridge #2 and what's even more amazing, 2 fish have been seen at Bridge #1. This is the first year that we've seen herring there so that's very exciting. Right now our number of fish per week is tracking along with 2018, which was a relatively low year, but there's still 2/3 of a month to go as well. In 2018, the issue was likely the inability of river herring to get through the entrance to Beaver Dam Brook at White Horse Beach. We have talked to the town and they recently cleared the culvert and brook entrance so that's not a concern this year. That said, the structure of the beach and location of the sand on it means that passage into Beaver Dam Brook is difficult except at high tide, so fish passage is limited through part of the tidal cycle. It is a testament to the restoration of Tidmarsh that there are river herring traveling through the system at all. Keep collecting that data so we can have a valid population estimate at the end of the season. Happy May!