Contributed by Madison Barbour

Sophia and Gwen measure 26 ” of water in the culvert, an hour before a 10.3 high tide on May 16th. Making our calculations, we determined this tide would come in another 1/12th of its total height, and this would be just shy of the elevation of the outlet of the marsh. Close!

Our class has been conducting salinity tests which shows how much salt is in the water in different areas of the marsh. The reason why we have been taking these samples is because there could be saltwater in the marsh and alewives are supposed to spawn and develop in the fresh-water. We have been doing this so that we can understand why the alewives haven’t been returning. The only thing that we could really find in the stream waters were elvers.

On May 16th, 2018 the 7th grade class went to the marsh. We went at 11:15 am, about an hour before high tide. At the marsh we took two water samples and brought them back to the classroom and let the water get to room temperature. Once they were at room temperature we used the refractometer which shows the salinity of the water. For the salinity of fresh-water it is supposed to be 0 ppt (parts per thousand) which is what we got when we tested our samples from the marsh.

We are interested in taking more samples when the tide is over 10.3 feet and flooding the Marsh. The reason why we are interested in that is because the water could flood into the Marsh and put salt in there that doesn’t belong. Twenty days of this month had tides 10.3 ft and over.

We have been trying to determine why the alewives haven’t been returning. We have been taking the samples to gather information to find out why they haven’t returned.