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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