North and South River Watershed Association

2026 Herring Count

March 22nd - June 14th, 2026

PLEASE BE SURE TO READ THIS ENTIRE PAGE, ESPECIALLY BEYOND THE SECTION MARKED "NEW PROTOCOLS"

Each spring, millions of river herring migrate into Massachusetts’ coastal waters to begin their annual migration up of our coastal streams and rivers. They are returning to the place of their birth, to spawn and create a new generation of river herring. River Herring populations had declined sharply in the early 2000s. As a result, in 2006 the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries implemented a ban on the harvest of herring. While the harvest ban was intended to reduce one stress on these fish they still faced a series of threats including drought, changing climate, shifts in predation, and an inability to get to their spawning grounds due to dams or non-operational fish ladders. 

The North and South Rivers Watershed Association and the MassBays National Estuary Partnership are working hard to restore our local rivers and we need your help to document our herring populations. We are seeking volunteers from late March through early June to count herring. 

The counting is easy, fun, and based on your availability. Detailed training will be provided, but here are the basics:

• Use the schedule below to pick your counting location(s)
• Pick the days of the week and time blocks that you can count. Time blocks are 4-hours long, you just need to show up any 10-minutes in that time block.
• Report back your results. That's it!

Counting Locations 

Note that we have added a new location (Island Creek Duxbury) and dropped one location (Third Herring Brook).

• Herring Brook, Hil's Mill Rd, Pembroke – Historically the highest population of herring in the watershed, it is a crucial site for tracking trends. Click here for link to Google Maps.

• South River, Veterans Park, Marshfield – Dam removal is complete! This will be an historic year for tracking fish up the newly constructed channel. Click here for link to Google Maps.

• Bound Brook, Mordecai Lincoln Rd, North Scituate – Site of a 2017 dam removal, herring have only just started to return in small numbers. Click here for link to Google Maps.  

• First Herring Brook, Old Oaken Bucket Dam, Scituate – We documented the consistent presence of herring here in 2024 and 2025. We're hoping that all this snow translates to good spring flows. Click here for link to Google Maps.

• Island Creek Duxbury – Used by Native Americans, the Island Creek Pond is 35-acres and has a stream flowing two miles into Kingston Bay thru the 7-acre Mill Pond over two fish ladders built in 2017.  This run has been stocked for the past four years with herring from the Pembroke run. Restoration efforts for this herring run are ongoing and the run is not overly active.  Parking is at 285 Tremont St, Duxbury. Please note that this is private property and we are fortunate to have permission to park.  Please park on the grass in front of the stone wall and be sure NOT to block the driveway. Walk south from the parking to the top of the fish ladder for counting.  Click here for link to Google Maps.

Counting Dates

• START: Counting starts on March 29 (except Herring Brook in Pembroke which starts March 22)

• END: Counting ends on May 30 (except South River in Marshfield which ends 6/13)

Signing Up

In the selection forms following, for each location only the last week of counting is shown, but your shift(s) is for the entire counting period with the start and end dates shown. So for any shift you select for a location, that will be your shift for all the weeks that are indicated for that location.  

You can sign up for multiple shifts and/or for multiple locations.

Please Note: It’s OK if you miss days for personal reasons.  It’s also OK to just show up to do extra shifts at any time or location!

Training

A recorded Zoom training session is here for new volunteers, refreshers, or future reference. 

More refresher information:  This pdf contains all details for the counting procedure (as well as log sheets if needed.

*NEW PROTOCOLS FOR 2025 and 2026*

1)  No need to collect Temperature data. For 2026 we have temperature loggers collecting continuous data in each of the brooks.

2)  In 2025 we transitioned fully to electronic data entry. This saves us time, reduces error, and gets us results faster.

• Please use the Survey123 data entry tool. *Note that this is new as of 2024. (Please don't use the old Epicollect app).

• Data can be directly entered into the web form without the use of an app. Or you can download the Survey123 app for free at the Apple or Android app stores (search for "Survey123"). Neither system requires a login. For web access, our project is here.

• If you are uncomfortable with using the app please ask for additional training. 

• Or,  if you strongly prefer to manually keep track of your data, you can use the printable log sheet at the end of this presentation.  As the log sheets fill up, you can email a scan (or a picture from your phone) to citizenscience@nsrwa.org -- or you can send them via postal mail to  Alex Mansfield, NSRWA, PO Box 43, Norwell, MA 02061 -- or drop it off at our office at 214 South Street in Norwell (near the Hanover Y ).

• NEW CAPABILITY: to see the counts entered via the app in near-real time, click here. From there you can also see all the counts across all the sites (very cool!).

• There will NOT be logbooks at the counting sites.