March 28, 2024

Get Ready For Spring – Volunteer Fish Counters Wanted!

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The Ten Mile River Watershed Council (TMRWC) is gearing up for the 4th Annual Fish Count at the Hunts Mills fish ladder located at 65 Hunts Mills road in East Providence, RI. 
Hunts Mills is the perfect place for a physical count of returning herring. Volunteers will be asked to count once a week forThe TMRWC is looking for volunteers to help count herring during the spawning season between late March and May. a period of 10 minutes at a time and record count as well as the readings of water temperature and river height.

The results of the fish count for the past three years are as follows:
• 2015 - 3,259 fish recorded
• 2016 - 15,627 fish recorded (This quantity may be an outlier; but we included the numbers recorded)
• 2017 - 3,708 fish recorded
The Ten Mile River has three fish ladders providing river access to herring and other anadromous fish which allow the fish access to upstream spawning locations.
The fish restoration project was completed in 2015 with the opening of the “Paul Bettencourt fish ladder at Omega Dam.” The Omega Dam fish ladder allows salt water fish access to Omega Pond and the Ten Mile River system. The fish then travel from Omega Pond to the Ten Mile River to the Hunts Mills fish ladder and further upstream to the Turner Dam fish ladder at the Turner Reservoir. The three fish ladders allow fish access of the Omega Pond, Turner Reservoir, and the Ten Mile River from the Providence River through East Providence to the dam on Armistice Boulevard in Pawtucket.
The TMRWC will hold one Orientation on Saturday March 24, 2018 from 12pm-2pm. Volunteers will register and participate in a 10 to 15-minute training session which will discuss fish counting procedures. Following the training, the TMRWC will lead a hike around the Hunts Mills Trails.
For more information, contact Keith@tenmileriver.net

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