Anadromous Fish Counts in the St. Croix River - 2024

Fish counting at Milltown Dam, located in St. Stephen, NB, has been in place since 1981 and was a means of establishing an approximate count of the anadromous fish entering the St. Croix River at its lowermost dam. Milltown Dam was fully decommissioned in June 2024. With the increasing numbers of fish in the last several years and potential for large scale restoration in the next few years, it is essential that the fish studies continue in the river in cooperation with all partners. This project continued the fish counting efforts in 2024 by installing underwater cameras in the two new locations upstream from Milltown and Vanceboro Dams. These cameras will be used to count the fish ascending the fishways. All data collected during this project was made available to restoration partners and fisheries managers to support evolving restoration plans for the international St. Croix River. At the end of the project, a final report was written on the data gathered from the Woodland and Vanceboro locations. The draft report was provided to partners, the International St. Croix Watershed Board, and the IJC for review, with the final report being shared with a broad range of agencies, stakeholders, interested parties, and tribal government/organizations. final spreadsheets of collected biological and other research data was also provided to agencies, tribes, researchers, and others with interest. This project is also highlighted in our IWI projects StoryMap here.