So When Do We Expect the Herring Run to Start?

At the kickoff meeting this week, that was the primary question.  If only a herring was at the meeting....

The herring will start the run when the water temperatures reach nominally 51F.  It's much cooler for 2013 than it was at this time in 2012.  For a comparison, please take a look at the Saltwater Temperatures in Cotuit Bay and at Eel Pond (Waquoit Bay) located here.

While the herring that will migrate up the Marstons Mills River all come through Cotuit Bay and Prince Cove, we have seen that the water temperatures are warmer at the temperature sensor in Cotuit, since that sensor is further from the cooler tidal inlet.  The temperature sensor at the entrance to Eel Pond is directly at the inlet, so the variations in temperature between the warmer bay and the cooler Nantucket Sound at each tide change are less pronounced.

For a look at the Waquoit Bay sensor raw real time data, please go to the NOAA weather conditions at the sensor located here.