After a somewhat promising start, with the weather change at the beginning of this week, the herring seem to have stopped their run. The statistics compared to prior years is being thrown off a bit with this big temperature change. We don't have access to real time local saltwater data prior to 2010, but we're tracking the data from 2010 on to see if we can start to make some correlations to temperature from this point forward. We want to try to further correlate activity to temperature right at the Mill Pond location, to better understand for future projections.
A new Page has been added to show the Current Run and Year to Year Counts. As has been done in the past, we will attempt to project the total count based on comparisons to previous years; however, with this interruption in the run, we have tabled this projection at this time.
We want to thank all volunteer counters for their patience during this cold period. For the last five days, no herring have been reported. We are cautiously optimistic that when the weather improves the run will restart. Thanks to all for your patience and your support in reporting temperatures even though no herring are observed. We are hopeful that local temperature profiles will help us better project what the water conditions are during the run.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Where are they????
Well, we started out pretty good, but the fish have seemed to disappear! We think they are just hanging out in the warmer ocean water and they're waiting for the river to warm up a little bit. We do monitor a site in Cotuit Bay that has a thermometer and the readings have been very low, 6-8 degrees C, so I think we're just playing a waiting game at this point. They will return, eventually!
In the meantime, we have placed the box down at the site with the thermometer and a counter inside. The lock is brand new, as is the thermometer. We've had a few reports that the lock was not cooperating, so we oiled it this morning. Just remember to push it in and then pull it out. Let us know if you have any more problems. The more it gets used, the looser it will become and easier to operate.
Also, when taking the temperature of the water, please be sure to leave the thermometer in the water for a few minutes. That way we will get a more accurate reading. And please don't handle the themermometer by the bottom. Your body temperature can affect the reading.
So, just remember: Every count counts!!! Even all of the zero counts we've had all week. Eventually, they will return! And we will be waiting for them!
In the meantime, we have placed the box down at the site with the thermometer and a counter inside. The lock is brand new, as is the thermometer. We've had a few reports that the lock was not cooperating, so we oiled it this morning. Just remember to push it in and then pull it out. Let us know if you have any more problems. The more it gets used, the looser it will become and easier to operate.
Also, when taking the temperature of the water, please be sure to leave the thermometer in the water for a few minutes. That way we will get a more accurate reading. And please don't handle the themermometer by the bottom. Your body temperature can affect the reading.
So, just remember: Every count counts!!! Even all of the zero counts we've had all week. Eventually, they will return! And we will be waiting for them!
Saturday, March 24, 2012
From an Alewive's Perspective....
Amazing underwater video taken at Mill Pond on first full day of the herring run....
Cinematographer Bob setting up for the above underwater shoot. Photo courtesy of Betsey.
Fish counts to date are as follows:
3/21 - Partial Day - 6 Fish in 4 counting intervals
3/22 - 11 Fish
3/23 - 11 Fish, but we don't have all the reports in yet from the scheduled counters.
So, at least we are ahead of last year at the 3rd day, with 28 fish observed, and our first day was only a partial day. We'll get a comparison to prior years spreadsheet pulled together in the next few days.
Thanks to all the counters for being so prompt with the observations to date!
Cinematographer Bob setting up for the above underwater shoot. Photo courtesy of Betsey.
Fish counts to date are as follows:
3/21 - Partial Day - 6 Fish in 4 counting intervals
3/22 - 11 Fish
3/23 - 11 Fish, but we don't have all the reports in yet from the scheduled counters.
So, at least we are ahead of last year at the 3rd day, with 28 fish observed, and our first day was only a partial day. We'll get a comparison to prior years spreadsheet pulled together in the next few days.
Thanks to all the counters for being so prompt with the observations to date!
Friday, March 23, 2012
"Keep your Eyes on the Board" - Training for New Counters
The following video shows the speed at which the alewives travel when they cross the herring run white board. This scene was shot at the weir at Middle Pond, which is not where we are counting this year, but gives a good perspective on what to expect when a herring jumps across the board. The perspective will be similar at the Mill Pond weir.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Slow Start, But....
We're starting slow, but the herring are on the move. No fish observed in the early a.m. at Mill Pond, but then they started. Today at mid-day the pool just below Middle Pond had some fish that had made it that far - see the video.
There were no alewives in the Middle Pond pool yesterday, so it looks like we have a clear path all the way. Now they just need to send for their friends and family.....
We'd encourage you to subscribe to this blog so that you don't miss any of the action. Also, please send any interesting observations, photos, or video links to herringcount@yahoo.com and we'll post them!
There were no alewives in the Middle Pond pool yesterday, so it looks like we have a clear path all the way. Now they just need to send for their friends and family.....
We'd encourage you to subscribe to this blog so that you don't miss any of the action. Also, please send any interesting observations, photos, or video links to herringcount@yahoo.com and we'll post them!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Herring Are Here! Oh My!
Well, not 5 minutes after our inaugural post, we received the news that the herring are here! This run is starting exactly two weeks earlier than the earliest recorded run, which was April 4th, 2010. There were definitely no fish observed at Mill Pond yesterday afternoon. We went to Middle Pond earlier this afternoon to see if any herring have made it yet the full distance. No signs of any fish in the last pool. The water looks beautiful and the run looks great, with new grates and a new paint job on the last rung of the ladder.
The first count at Mill Pond took place at the 1:00 hour today, with two fish observed, but none made the jump during the counting interval. However, we did have some observations later in the day -
Just before 3 p.m. - a fat seagull was perched right at the last rung with the white board, watching the water. He was not happy to see me.... just after he flew off, I did observe one fish jumping the white board, but it was not counted since I did not start the 10 minute interval during the 2:00 hour.
3:00 hour - two fish cleared the rung during the counting interval, with another half dozen in the pool, lined up to go....
4:00 hour - three fish made the jump.
5:00 hour - one fish through. There were more in the pool!
From prior years, big runs have occurred in Days 2 through 5, so we're scrambling to get a schedule together for the next few days.
We'll be posting a detailed schedule after our Herring Counter meeting at Liberty Hall on March 22 at 6:30 p.m. We hope to get a good start to the schedule during that meeting.
The first count at Mill Pond took place at the 1:00 hour today, with two fish observed, but none made the jump during the counting interval. However, we did have some observations later in the day -
Just before 3 p.m. - a fat seagull was perched right at the last rung with the white board, watching the water. He was not happy to see me.... just after he flew off, I did observe one fish jumping the white board, but it was not counted since I did not start the 10 minute interval during the 2:00 hour.
3:00 hour - two fish cleared the rung during the counting interval, with another half dozen in the pool, lined up to go....
4:00 hour - three fish made the jump.
5:00 hour - one fish through. There were more in the pool!
From prior years, big runs have occurred in Days 2 through 5, so we're scrambling to get a schedule together for the next few days.
We'll be posting a detailed schedule after our Herring Counter meeting at Liberty Hall on March 22 at 6:30 p.m. We hope to get a good start to the schedule during that meeting.
2012 - Planning for an Early Run!
Welcome to the New Marstons Mills River Watershed Herring Count Blog!
We are deeply saddened with the untimely death of Kevin Galvin earlier this year. Kevin was instrumental in setting up, coordinating, maintaining statistics, and providing colorful commentary both in person and in his blog re the Marstons Mills watershed herring counts each spring. He has left us with big shoes to fill. We're hoping to retrieve some of his background information and files at some point, but in the meantime the community at large knew Kevin would want to preserve and expand the data he started, so that we can all learn more about how best to preserve and protect our river herring. Please click here to review his old posts from past years - they are very informative and entertaining.
Three Bays (www.3bays.org) has stepped in to fill the void, by working to coordinate this year's herring count on the Marstons Mills River. I was a volunteer counter for the first time in 2011 after having moved full time to Cape Cod. Knowing that the herring were likely going to start an early migration, I volunteered to help Three Bays coordinate this effort. I'm no computer professional, like Kevin G, but can manage reasonably well around data. I'm hoping I can help to continue what he started in a meaningful way.
The data for all herring run counts from 2006-2011 are shown here.
Mother Nature has been playing games with us all season, to the point where we haven't really had a winter. It will be very interesting to see when the fish start running, and if last year's very small count was an anomaly, or is indicative of future trends. Since we started officially counting herring using the MA state protocol in 2006, the earliest the herring run has started was April 4th. We're pretty confident they'll be earlier than that this year.
Three Bays has a solid relationship with the Indian Ponds Association (www.indianponds.org), and there's a strong linkage to this project, since the river herring start in Prince Cove and travel through the Marstons Mills River to Middle Pond and Mystic Lake. Please see an explanation of the counting to date and the route the herring travel in the IPA's winter 2012 newsletter posted here.
We are interested in trying to better project when the herring will start their run. The alewives are known to begin their migration when the water temperatures reach nominally 51 F. We searched around for a nearby south coast real time temperature sensor with some history, to see if we could start to develop a correlation to the start of the run. The closest continuously recording temperature measurement we could access via NOAA data that had some history in the March/April time period was at the entrance to Eel Pond just west of Waquoit Bay in Falmouth. This entrance is a deepwater inlet, and should be a good indication of the coastal seawater temperatures as they mix with the bay. The red lines are 2010 data; blue lines are 2011 data, and the green line is 2012 to date as of this a.m. Vertical lines show the first day of the Marstons Mills river herring run for each year. (Click on graphs for full size view.)
There is also a sensor in Cotuit Bay, on the east side of the bay. This sensor does not have historical data prior to 2011 in the March / April time frame. The temperatures in Cotuit Bay very closely correlate to the Eel Pond inlet, albeit a couple of degrees warmer, since it is further from the ocean inlet.
In both cases, the sensors show variations in the temperatures, which reflect the impact of tides. The peak water temperatures this time of year occur at low tide, when the bays are the shallowest. The low daily water temperatures occur at high tide and reflect the colder incoming ocean water mixing with the warmer bay water.
In all cases, yesterday's warm water at both Cotuit Bay and Eel Pond well exceeds 51 F. In the last two years, the Marstons Mills river herring run started on the second day the peak temperature at Eel Pond exceeded 51 F.
So where are the herring now? Are they ready to go, or do they know something we don't know?
We are deeply saddened with the untimely death of Kevin Galvin earlier this year. Kevin was instrumental in setting up, coordinating, maintaining statistics, and providing colorful commentary both in person and in his blog re the Marstons Mills watershed herring counts each spring. He has left us with big shoes to fill. We're hoping to retrieve some of his background information and files at some point, but in the meantime the community at large knew Kevin would want to preserve and expand the data he started, so that we can all learn more about how best to preserve and protect our river herring. Please click here to review his old posts from past years - they are very informative and entertaining.
Three Bays (www.3bays.org) has stepped in to fill the void, by working to coordinate this year's herring count on the Marstons Mills River. I was a volunteer counter for the first time in 2011 after having moved full time to Cape Cod. Knowing that the herring were likely going to start an early migration, I volunteered to help Three Bays coordinate this effort. I'm no computer professional, like Kevin G, but can manage reasonably well around data. I'm hoping I can help to continue what he started in a meaningful way.
The data for all herring run counts from 2006-2011 are shown here.
Mother Nature has been playing games with us all season, to the point where we haven't really had a winter. It will be very interesting to see when the fish start running, and if last year's very small count was an anomaly, or is indicative of future trends. Since we started officially counting herring using the MA state protocol in 2006, the earliest the herring run has started was April 4th. We're pretty confident they'll be earlier than that this year.
Three Bays has a solid relationship with the Indian Ponds Association (www.indianponds.org), and there's a strong linkage to this project, since the river herring start in Prince Cove and travel through the Marstons Mills River to Middle Pond and Mystic Lake. Please see an explanation of the counting to date and the route the herring travel in the IPA's winter 2012 newsletter posted here.
We are interested in trying to better project when the herring will start their run. The alewives are known to begin their migration when the water temperatures reach nominally 51 F. We searched around for a nearby south coast real time temperature sensor with some history, to see if we could start to develop a correlation to the start of the run. The closest continuously recording temperature measurement we could access via NOAA data that had some history in the March/April time period was at the entrance to Eel Pond just west of Waquoit Bay in Falmouth. This entrance is a deepwater inlet, and should be a good indication of the coastal seawater temperatures as they mix with the bay. The red lines are 2010 data; blue lines are 2011 data, and the green line is 2012 to date as of this a.m. Vertical lines show the first day of the Marstons Mills river herring run for each year. (Click on graphs for full size view.)
There is also a sensor in Cotuit Bay, on the east side of the bay. This sensor does not have historical data prior to 2011 in the March / April time frame. The temperatures in Cotuit Bay very closely correlate to the Eel Pond inlet, albeit a couple of degrees warmer, since it is further from the ocean inlet.
In both cases, the sensors show variations in the temperatures, which reflect the impact of tides. The peak water temperatures this time of year occur at low tide, when the bays are the shallowest. The low daily water temperatures occur at high tide and reflect the colder incoming ocean water mixing with the warmer bay water.
In all cases, yesterday's warm water at both Cotuit Bay and Eel Pond well exceeds 51 F. In the last two years, the Marstons Mills river herring run started on the second day the peak temperature at Eel Pond exceeded 51 F.
So where are the herring now? Are they ready to go, or do they know something we don't know?
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