March 31, 2017

The Society recently completed its first fish sampling event of the year at Wreck Pond. Our spring sampling targets river herring that migrate into the watershed to spawn. We use a fyke net to catch fish. The net is set up underneath the railroad bridge for several days, and is checked in the mornings and evenings. All fishes caught are identified, measured, and weighed. River herring caught are additionally tagged with PIT tags to better track their spawning movement and behavior. During this past event we caught several white perch, a couple white suckers, one large carp, and three alewife.  
 
At Wreck Pond, the Society has recorded its first recapture of an alewife tagged last year. Fish 576 “Samantha” was first caught in our fyke net on April 23rd of last year. She was subsequently measured, weighed, and tagged. Until recently, she was last recorded on May 24, 2016, passing by our antenna at the outfall pipe as she left the watershed for the Atlantic.

On March 25, 2017 at around 2:00am, Samantha swam through our antenna located near the Rt. 71 Bridge. We are heartened to see that Samantha survived the past year in the ocean and has once again returned to Wreck Pond to spawn. If you are interested in volunteering to assist with fish sampling contact Zack Royle at Zack@littoralsociety.org.  
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