Study planning for Braintree herring run

The state is planning a study for this summer that will examine the costs and challenges associated with helping a million or more herring spawn in Great Pond in Braintree. The study, commissioned by the state Division of Marine Fisheries, will look at the possibility of constructing a fish ladder in the Monatiquot cq River behind the old Armstrong factory site off Plain Street. Herring, which spend most of their lives in salt water but migrate up local rivers in the spring to spawn, have recently returned to the Monatiquot River in large numbers. Their progress to Great Pond, the river's headwaters, is currently impeded by a large rock outcrop near an MBTA commuter rail bridge and the Hollingsworth Dam behind the Armstrong property.
The ladder would allow the fish to continue to run up the Monatiquot, into the Farm River and Sunset Lake, and eventually to Great Pond. Herring were common in Great Pond hundreds of years ago but disappeared as the area became more and more densely settled. In recent years, volunteers with the Fore River Watershed Association have cleared debris and obstacles from the riverbed in East Braintree. Now thousands of the fish can be seen well upstream.
Association member Carl Pawlowski said improving herring run could have a tremendous impact on the Fore River basin, including increased numbers of bluefish and pickerel, which feed on herring.

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