Volunteers Needed for Parker River Clean Water Association’s 12th Annual Fish Count

March 30, 2008

The Parker River Clean Water Association (PRCWA) is looking for volunteers to help them conduct their 12^th Annual Fish Count from mid-April to mid-May. No experience is necessary to assist with the count.

To assess the ecological health of the Parker River, the PRCWA and local citizens are organizing a volunteer effort to count alewives swimming upstream to spawn this spring. The count will compare numbers of fish to those from a similar study in the 1970s. Average counts of the past five years were only 510 fish, whereas in the 1970s there were more than 30,000.

When: Monday, April 7, from 6:30 to 8 p.m
Where: AT the Newbury Town Library in Byfield Center

“We are concerned, because the past five years’ counts have shown a sharp reduction in the number of fish spawning in the Parker River,” according to Parker River Clean Water Association President Don Bade. “Counting the fish helps us to measure the extent of the decline, instead of relying on anecdotal evidence.”

Alewives, like salmon, begin their lives in freshwater. The fry swim downstream from headwater ponds in the fall. Three or four years later, the adult fish have grown to be 10 to 13 inches long. They return from the ocean to spawn in April and May, when freshwater temperatures reach the mid-50s.

Local fishermen and women will also be active volunteers in the fish count. The Essex County Sportsmen Association is joining the Parker River Clean Water Association and the Massachusetts Audubon Society in conducting the effort. A corps of volunteers will count fish for 10 minutes out of each hour between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m., seven days a week, from mid-April to mid-May.

Persons interested in assisting with the count should attend the volunteer training, which will include a presentation about the alewife migration and instruction on how to count and take water temperature measurements. At the training, volunteers can sign up for one or more of the 10-minute time slots. Families are welcome to participate, as long as children are at least 8 years old.

For more information, call the Parker River Clean Water Association office at 978-462-2551 or e-mail parker.river@verizon.net.