Things I’ve learned this spring: not all river herring use fish ladders the way we’d like them to. Many of the fish swim right on past, don’t use them at all.
The fish ladder at Wakefield, RI. It’s on the westside of town near the Chevy dealership. This ladder (some people call them fishways) connects the Atlantic Ocean and Point Judith Pond with the Saugatucket River. Anadromous fish–fish that live at sea but spawn in freshwater– use the ladder to gain access to spawning areas upriver. The Wakefield ladder mostly sees alewives, a kind of river herring that act like miniature salmon except they don’t die after they spawn.
In the above picture, notice the cement ladder running to the dam; notice too the wooden 4X4s in the upper right-hand corner; notice the sea gulls standing on the dam. The ladder isn’t small, covers maybe 80 feet. I like this ladder. I like this part of the river–it’s close to where I live, a short walk away.
But this ladder doesn’t work very well at getting fish over the dam. It passes some fish, but not many. I don’t think it has anything to do with this year’s drought, either. Because the same thing happened last year, a year of plenty springtime rain. The alewives seem to prefer another route. Instead of taking a right-hand turn after passing underneath Main Street–a turn which would put their little noses into the ladder’s entrance– they swim straight up the set of small falls, ending up in three pools at the foot of the dam.
JP Lee
This photo’s looking downstream. I’m standing on the dam. Notice where the entrance of the ladder is relative to the flow of the stream. Would the ladder perform better, move more fish from point A to point B, if it were in-line with the flow of the river, not at a right angle to it? I mulled this question over at the top of the dam, the green plants flowing in the current, the sunfish getting ready to bed. I like the history of dams–mills, paper, and snuff. I understand that this dam, once it became operational, wiped out the river herring. I understand that the herring I see today are not original fish, are not part of a lineage that stretches back to when the river had no mills, had no town. I understand that the fish I see were put here after the ladder was built, I’m guessing sometime in the 1970s. These fish are stocked. They probably came from Massachusetts. I originally came from somewhere else as well, we all did. So I can relate. It doesn’t matter much to me that the herring I see today in the Saugatucket came from places like the Taunton River, the Merrimack.
If you look at the above photograph, look into the pool, squint your eyes through the glare, you’ll see the pool is stuffed with alewives. The gulls see them too and don’t easily forget it. The herring are stuck in these pools. I watch them search for holes in the dam. It won’t happen. Maybe at night they descend back down the falls and find another way upriver. But I doubt this. My fear is the fish become exhausted swimming around the pools, searching for a way in. Predation is high. I see the guano on the rocks and on the dam, like a hundred white cakes. Gulls, herons, raccoons, weasels.
The Saugatucket herring run has been going on for about four weeks. The intensity of the run is not uniform. One day to the next, the migrating herring act as differently as a child. The fish run with changes in the weather, changes in the tide. Rain fall. Full moons. It all matters. I understand none of it, none of it well.
The past few days–warm weather, an overcast sky. The stream’s once again loaded with fish. And the bulk of the fish once again aren’t using the ladder. They’re all pooled up next the dam. So I jumped the rail, grabbed a net, and climbed onto the 4X4s. I got the fish over the falls. I had permission to use the net, permission to handle the alewives. I signed papers, gave my number. Alewives are a protected species–you cannot tamper with them. If you want to help these fish you need permission to do it. And so I netted some fish, and the work felt good, a small contribution, a giving back.
Photo credit: Zach Harvey
By the end of my efforts, I got 300 herring swimming in the right direction, got them going where they wanted to go–up the river and past the yoga studio, the elementary school, the high-end fitness club, past the neighborhood guild, the playground, the methadone clinic and on until the river slows its way into a pond. Then they’ll come to the surface, swim in a tight slow circle, fish flashing their colors in a kind of mating dance.
The spawn. These fish need numbers. Herring are a prolific tribe of fish–or want to be, need to be. But the numbers in the Saugatucket are too low. More fish need to pass the dam. I did see some fish use the ladder. I’d stand at the top of the ladder, on the boardwalk the town built a few years ago, and count the number of fish that swam through. My best count was 50 fish in half and hour, which isn’t bad at all. But many of the other times I was there counting there were few or none–and these times were not times of a migratory lull: I could see herring rush the falls, swimming on their sides when the water got shallow. Then gulls had their moment. I thought of hurling rocks at the seagulls, screaming profanities. But the f-word doesn’t mean much to a gull.
It all feels a little futile. Netting fish over a dam, yelling at seagulls. And this problem can’t be unique–other herring runs, from Wakefield to Woods Hole and beyond–each must have their own sets of problems. Some problems might be with cormorant predation, others with not enough rain is this; still others with inefficient fishways, poor passage. It’s easier to point to the commercial herring fleet and say there’s our problem. And that might be a problem. But I think another problem is with the streams and rivers–the hundreds of places where herring should be spawning. But aren’t. Because they can’t. It’d be one thing if the fish weren’t even there, an empty waste of amber water, beer cans, and soggy maple leaves. But when I see the fish try to run and get trapped–it’s a lame feeling. We have to give the fish a chance to spawn, the opportunity to flash scales and turn broadside, boil at the surface.
Solutions? I have some and they require money and that’s a problem, though nothing is insurmountable.
Follow
Seems like so many “solutions” are implemented, but without any research to inform them to start, or follow up to see how well they work and what improvements can be made the next time around. This is a problem seen with many natural resources management actions. And then someone watches the dam and says, “Huh, why’d they install the ladder at a right angle to the flow? That obviously doesn’t make sense to the fish!” Good for you for helping out. It is a poor, wasteful shame that the fish make it to the dam and never any further without help.
Question: is this kind of netting/relocating organized, or do people get permits and do it on their own?
Erin, a guy who drives a UPS truck, a few years back, got state permission to net the fish over the falls. River herring are a protected species. If he didn’t have permission and started to net the fish, he’d get fined. But it’s legal now. I think 6 of us are on the list. But it still feels like you’re pushing a rock up a hill. The gulls by day and who-knows-what by night. And the $$ it’d cost to re-do the ladder, in this economy. . .
Erin, The UPS driver would make a hell of a good Talk of the Town piece for the New Yorker. He’s quite the character. Maybe next years I’ll interview him and write something up.
That might have been my friend Russel.
Drove past that bridge every day for 5 years. Never knew there was a fish ladder there. Embarrassing.
Maybe you want to run for Deputy Herring Warden? I think the position might be open.
By the way, there’s a new website intown that supports other herring wardens / volunteers and the like.
http://www.riverherringnetwork.com/
I’m sure they could help, if only to offer moral support.
Keep up the good work.
Interesting. I might look into some volunteer work for next year, at least talk to some people.
Love it.
JPLee, Conservationist…..
Stand aside Safina. Here I come.
the same thing happens up in middleboro. the herring swim straight into the dam and sit in the pools. only herring that hug the left river bank seem to make the left turn into the ladder
Went largemouth fishing today up where the river enters into a pond. Raining out. Up in a corner of the pond I saw what looked like a pogie school. Turned out to be on the largest school of alewives, the largest I’ve ever seen in freshwater. Funny. I didn’t think many had made it up that high. Very cool to see that.
Great read as always, JP. Hats off to you for doing your part. Here in CT, a new fishway was opened this spring along the first obstruction that anadromous fish encounter in the Quinnipiac River. I hope the herring and shad use it and use it often. Keep up the good work!
Great post. I used to park in that lot around the corner when the lot for the Mews Tavern was full, and walk by that fish ladder. During the run there were always two or three very content largemouth bass hanging out at the top of the ladder. I wonder if anyone’s ever looked at how restricting the fish to one narrow route affects their losses to predators.
I’ve heard that some runs, Warwick, RI, I think, have had issues with cormorants picking the fish off the second they come into the pond. The fish are tired and the cormorants have enough water to really swim–predation is high I hear.
I think that the fact the run is so loaded with herring is a testament to the fact that the ladder (and moratorium) is working, no? I’m sure it increases predation, but it sounds like a ton are getting through on their own…
I think the Saugatucket run is having a strong year. But I’ve heard other runs aren’t so good. This afternoon I bumped into a guy who told me that he talked with the DEM, and the DEM told him that about 20,000 fish had been “netted” over the falls in Wakefield. Now, I don’t no if that number is true or not. But 20,000 fish doesn’t seem too bad for a river. This man also went on to tell me that there is talk of re-working the ladder for next year so more fish pass up it, and the net method becomes obsolete. Take it with a grain of salt. I’ll post something when I hear “actual” numbers, from 1st person sources. But still, not a bad spring in the Saugatucket. I was thinking more like 5000 fish. We’ll see. Thanks for writing.
JP: I am responding to your comments about the Wakefield Dam fishway in Wakefield. The fishway was originally designed in 1969 and constructed in 1970, at a time when we knew only a bit about fish passage. We know much more on fish passage and fishway design, today, based on experimental design and monitoring. We are currently completing a design plan for the reconstruction of the fishway that will allow alewife to blueback herring to pass over the dam, rather than passing the fishway entrance and ending up in the pools below the dam. I am glad folks like you are interested in the herring run and allowing the run to be sustained. Please understand that we have spent much time on correcting a fishway that needs improvements. We will also construct an ell pass at the dam that will allow elvers to also efficiently pass over the dam. Again, thanks for your interest, Jim
I just read your article about the alewives,we called them buckeyes, trying to get over the dam in Wakefield. From 1956-1960 I walked by the dam everyday on my way to school. The treat was to see what color the foam was each day from the dye coming out of Masland Mills now South County Orthopedics.They dyed carpet and rugs. There was no fish ladder but the alewives came up the river to the dam year after year. The dam had been there a long time and the water was polluted with raw sewerage as well. I don’t know how they spawned but they kept coming back. In the early 1960’s we had a boy scout troop off of Silver Lake Avenue next to the river. We would catch alewives before some of our meetings. They were good eating if they were smoked. Some people used them for fertilizer in vegetable gardens and others for fish and lobster bait. In the late 1960’s I lived on Eldred court until 1974. I would walk down to the river and the alewives
were still coming back but in smaller numbers. I bet that some of those returning now may be genetically linked to the alewives back then. I remember people saying that they were gone but I know that some still returned over the years.How they spawned without a fish ladder is an interesting question?
Bob, I live on Warner Ave. I’m sure I know the house you lived in. I love these older stories I hear from people. What the runs used to be like, how things have changed. It’s a very valuable perspective. Thanks for the comment.