Join thousands of citizen scientists on June 26, 2020 for a day of counting. Using an underwater “fishcam,” you will count river herring to help document the number migrating from the Atlantic Ocean up the Mystic River.
“It's been amazing to discover this natural wonder happening right under our noses. When I think of migrations, I usually think of herds of zebra or wildebeests in Africa, so it's exciting to see this natural wonder happening here. Some of the video clips of hundreds of fish whizzing by in a minute are awe-inspiring.” said Christine McK another dedicated counter.
The underwater camera is set up to record video clips whenever it detects one or more fish passing through its field of view. These video clips, which are less than 60 seconds, are uploaded to this website in real time so that anyone from anywhere can help count how many fish are migrating up the Mystic River. Already this spring--we have counted 271,934 herring in 20,431 video clips. There are still 6,066 video clips left to accurately document the run size.
You can help us finish the spring migration with an accurate count--by joining us for the first ever “day of counting.” Take out 10 minutes of your day to watch at least 5 video clips and tally the number at www.MysticHerring.org.
This data is used by the Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) to estimate the herring run size for the river in 2020. For 2019 there were an estimated 789,000 herring that made the migration--a threefold increase from 2012 when the first formal count was released by DMF.
“I usually count herring with my grandchildren who are just learning how to count. They can’t help me count the busy videos but they do like to see the fish swimming on the screen. We’re local so we also visit the Upper Mystic Lake Dam and watch the cormorants eating the fish that swim by. My grandson was somewhat horrified when he realized that they were eating the fish that we count. His worry evaporated when we saw an eagle hunting for the fish last year. For some reason, the eagle gets a pass,” said Nadine Solomon a dedicated counter from Arlington, MA.
“What makes the herring population recovery such a great and unique ecological success story is that citizen scientists are at the heart of it,” said Patrick Herron, Executive Director, Mystic River Watershed Association. “Community members helped draw attention to river herring on the Mystic River--lifting them with buckets and by hand until 2012 when a fish ladder was installed in the Mystic Lakes dam. Since that time citizen scientists have been helping document this run size--demonstrating it is one of the largest in Massachusetts. This resulted in a fish ladder further upstream at Winchester Center Falls Dam.”
The Mystic River Watershed Association encourages you to help us document the run size at https://www.mysticherring.org/video#/. Beyond being a citizen scientist--you can also learn more about the importance of river herring to our watershed and the Oceanic food system, and the amazing ecological success story that has happened on the Mystic--thanks to expanded habitat for herring.
