Town Brook Restoration
The NOAA Restoration Center has been supporting the Town of Plymouth for just over 20 years to remove 5 dams and enhance fish passage at a 6th dam on Town Brook in order to restore diadromous runs of river herring, American eel and rainbow smelt. The final dam removal was completed in 2019. As part of the project NOAA provided funding to install an underwater camera that allows for citizen scientists to count returning herring in order to determine the annual run size.
Project URL: https://www.plymouth-ma.gov/marine-and-environmental-affairs/pages/town-brook-herring-information
Geographic Scope: Town Brook, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Project Status: Periodically active - recruiting volunteers
Participation Tasks: Data entry, Observation,
Start Date: 4/1/2019
Project Contact: eric.hutchins@noaa.gov
Federal Government Sponsor:
Other Federal Government Sponsor: National Marine Fisheries Service
Fields of Science: Animals, Computers and technology, Ecology and environment, Education, Nature and outdoors
Intended Outcomes: The focus of the citizen science part of the project to enable the public anywhere in the world to participate in the annual counting of herring on Town Brook. Through increased public participation our goal to increase the national interest in restoring migratory fish runs that have been impacted to made made blockages such as dams, bridges and culverts.