May 2018
Monthly Archive
Monthly Archive
Posted by karlmeyer on 13 May 2018 | Tagged as: Connecticut River ecosystem, Connecticut River shortnose sturgeon, ecosystem, endangerd shortnose sturgeon, FirstLight, Rock Dam, Rock Dam Pool, shortnose sturgeon, Turners Falls, Turners Falls dam
Copyright © 2018 by Karl Meyer. All rights reserved.
MOTHER’S DAY MISERIES AT ROCK DAM
The federally-endangered Connecticut River shortnose sturgeon has just a single, documented natural spawning site in the four-state river ecosystem: the Rock Dam in Turners Falls, MA.
Given the unique structure, depth, and flow characteristics of this ancient rock formation and spawning pool, shortnose have likely returned here for millenia, using it as a fail-safe nursery where they can choose depth, flow, and areas above sand, pebble-and-cobble substrate for spawning that will ultimately come to protect and nurture their young.
(Click, then Click again, THEN AGAIN, to enlarge)
MOTHER’S DAY MISERY AT ROCK DAM: listless flows and exposed cobble shoals where young would develop in safety.
However, this Rock Dam site is assailed annually during sturgeon spawning periods with ramping, see-sawing, and de-pauperizing flows that cause spawning failure for these embattled fish. This year was no different. On Mother’s Day, May 13, 2018, in what is virtually their peak spawning time, flow manipulations just upstream at FirstLight’s Turners Falls dam left the river roaring at Rock Dam one day, and bereft of nourishing flows and watered nursery habitat the next. No mercy on Mother’s Day here…
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