Alewife Monitoring Calendar
Join us for our 2024 monitoring season!
TRAINING materials
Article: Reaching new heights:Herring return to the Merrimack in record numbers
Thank you for your interest in our fish monitoring program! We need up to twelve volunteers daily to monitor the alewife at the Centennial Island fish ladder. The more frequent our observations are, the better our data will be.
The season will run from May 4 to June 8, 2024.
The time slots are broken down into one-hour periods. We need one monitor for each one-hour time block, but each monitor only needs to count for 10 consecutive minutes (pick any random 10 minutes within your one-hour time slot).
Please fill out this registration form, even if you have volunteered in prior years. After you register, we’ll send an email to let you know about signing up for times.
How to report your observations (Epicollect App will be updated before the start of the 2024 season):
- Epicollect5 app: Android or iphone
- Name of project to search for 2024 CONCORD RIVER ALEWIFE MONITORING
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What’s involved with fish monitoring?
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Volunteers will be provided information on how to access the ladder.
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We are not providing any supplies for the 2024 season to make reporting “touch-free”:
- stopwatch/timer: please use your personal phone, watch, or stopwatch
- counter: there are several apps that you can use on your phone for counting
- datasheets/clipboards: please bring something firm to write on or use your phone to document your sightings; if you want to use paper
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Each monitor will fill out a data sheet for their 10 minutes of monitoring (any random 10 minutes within the hour time block – please try not to come at the same time each time you monitor). Please avoid monitoring on the hour, so you do not overlap with another volunteer.
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You will count the fish moving UP the ladder (upstream), record your name, the time, and the weather, and put your data sheet back in the box.
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We will add photos here during the season, if needed, so you know exactly where to look to count the fish.
The data you collect is incredibly valuable to our partner state and federal agencies. One important reason is that the data will help determine what kind of fish access will be provided at the Talbot Mills Dam in Billerica in the future.
Thank you for helping us document the historic return of alewife to the Concord River. YOU are helping open access to the largest acreage of optimal fish habitat in New England.
- 2024 FISH COUNTS to date (lifted at Essex Dam in Lawrence): April 26 (5 herring ), April 29 (171 herring), May 10 (34,947 herring), May 20 (35,256 herring), May 24 (35,293 herring)
- HISTORIC DATA BELOW (at Essex Dam in Lawrence):
- 2023 FISH COUNT: About 6,000 herring
- 2020 FISH COUNTS: May 6: “few thousand” in Essex lift, 17,000 cfs (flow); May 17-18: 100,000 over two days (flow below 10,000 cfs)
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2019 FISH COUNTS: May 20: 5,972 river herring; 515 shad; May 28: 143,418 river herring; 3,841 shad; July 2: 143,541 river herring; 18,653 shad
- 2018 FISH COUNTS: May 3: 26 river herring; May 4: 100 river herring; 1 shad (1st lift); May 6: 4,000 river herring; May 7: 8,500 river herring (as of 2pm); May 11: 39,572 river herring; May 14: 143,548 river herring; May 18: 348,666; May 21: 395,998; June 1: 448,205
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