2016 Fish Census

Video 1: Fish Monitoring Part 1 (14 minutes 40 seconds)
Video 2: Working the River (2 minutes 18 seconds)
Video 3: Navigating an Impediment (51 seconds)
Video 4: Fish Monitoring Part 4 (10 minutes 31 seconds)

With help from the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council's Kassi Archambault, Friends of the Moshassuck performed a fish census near both the headwaters and an urban stretch of the main Moshassuck tributary. By scanning 100 foot sections of representative river in both places (for 70-minute scans), we found 53 fish of twelve known species in the headwaters and 15 fish of two species (a Darter and a Chubsucker) in the urban stretch. Both larger and smaller fish were found upstream while urban stretch fish were all between 30 and 82 millimeters in length (most being between 60 and 78mm). Results were similar enough to a previous census to get a reasonable baseline for future censuses.


Getting started on a 100-foot stretch of the Moshassuck near the headwaters

Working a deeper stretch of a 100-foot stretch of the urban Moshassuck's main tributary

Kassi is pleased with the teamwork, process, and results of the 2016 census

Of course, it is all about the fish which are best inventoried while wet and full of life.