Scheduling Well Underway; Cleanup On Saturday

We're well on our way to getting the scheduling done, at least for the first two weeks.

But were very short on help this year, with 5 of our last year counters out for medical and other reasons - so please volunteer here if you can help us count. If you know of someone who might be interested, please tell them about it and we can even work with folks who have no access to the Internet.

We're checking the water temperature 2-3 times a day at Mill Pond and today at 11am it was 46F which is pretty cool - the Alewives, which migrate first, like ~51F and the Bluebacks like ~57F.

But a bigger picture shows that the ocean water temperature posted by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA] at Woods Hole being 41.7F at 7am this morning, which is below the historical average of 44F for April 1-15. The NOAA website isn't working this morning, but we're going to look back at what the historical temperatures were at Woods Hole when the Herring started running here in prior years to see if there is a correlation. It may be that the Herring will tolerate a colder ocean temperature while approaching their natal pond, but not start migrating until the higher 51F is reached, or perhaps the ocean needs to be at least 51F as well for them to even approach.

The Herring Run viewing area at Routes 28 & 149 needs a good cleaning. If you'd like to help doing this for 30-60 minutes on Saturday [April 9] at 10am, please let us know here by checking Herring Counting Program and put 'will help cleaning' in the Comments box. Thanks!