Alewife Fish Count Project
Partnering with Massachusetts Audubon Society (North Shore), 8T&B has sponsored and participated in several regional alewife fish count projects. For 4-6 weeks in April and May, volunteers of all ages are trained to help count alewife as they make their way upstream to spawn using a newly renovated fish ladder on the Little River in Gloucester,Alewife Brook in Essex, the Ipswich River in Ipswich, and the Parker River in Rowley. At the Little River in Gloucester, 8T&B assisted in getting funding for the construction of a steep pass fishway of wood for the Lily Pond Dam. The fishway baffles propel the fish upstream, a vast improvement on the existing old concrete ladder system that was in poor repair. The fish counts help in assessing the health of the fishery as well as the ecosystem, from ocean to freshwater spawning ponds and lakes.
For further information about the results of the fish count, please visit www.riverherring.org.
Download the new river herrring status report:
Status of River Herring on the North Shore of Massachusetts
(.pdf format, 2.2MB)
For more information on local counts contact Peter Phippen.
