Fish Gate
Fish Gate
A Doorway for Smelt
The Fish Gate is a metal gate that can be opened and closed to redirect water from the historic stream channel and the newly daylighted portion of Smelt Brook in Weymouth Landing to the Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) flood control tunnel, pictured on the right side of the photo above.
Rangers from Weymouth-Braintree Regional Recreation Conservation District (Pond Meadow Park) control the gate to prevent flooding and allow Rainbow Smelt (Osmerus mordax) to migrate upstream and spawn in the late winter early spring. Recently the Corps amended the fish gate's operation plan to allow the rangers to keep the gate open more frequently to let water to flow through the daylighting.
The gate is manually closed before storms and flood events to redirect the water into the flood control tunnel to prevent flooding in the Landing.
The Army Corps of Engineers will determine if the fish gate is a barrier to fish passage and if any physical or operational modifications need to be made as a part of their 1135 Restoration Study.
See letters of support for the 1135 Restoration study:
