River Herring Count

The Buckeye Brook Coalition is the state-designated Local Watershed Council for the Buckeye Brook Watershed, and in cooperation with the state Department of Environmental Management’s Division of Fish & Wildlife, is recruiting volunteers for training and to participate in the 2024 annual fish count in the brook, located in Warwick. During the fish count, volunteers get together to participate during the river herring/fish migration season from April 1 through May 30 each year to observe and count fish in the local watershed where the fish swim upstream to spawn. All new volunteers are required to attend one training session.

WHAT TO EXPECT: Herring surveys are quick and fun! Volunteers can stop by a survey site any time between sunrise and sunset from April 1st through May to count herring moving upstream during a 10 minute period. During each visit, volunteers simply record the date, time, water temperature, and number of herring they counted from shore on a data sheet. These simple counts provide DEM fisheries biologists with valuable data on Rhode Island's herring population! *New volunteers are required to fill out a Volunteer Waiver and attend a Zoom Training or in-person training before performing their surveys.

Every spring in Rhode Island, herring make their annual trip from the Atlantic Ocean back into the freshwater systems from which they were born in order to spawn (reproduce). RI DEM biologists rely on the help of volunteers to count them as they arrive!