The Rowley River is a small river between

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and borough in Suffolk, England, of which it is the county town. The town is located in East Anglia about away from the mouth of the River Orwell and the North Sea. Ipswich is both on the Great Eastern Main Line ...

and

Rowley, Massachusetts Rowley is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,161 at the 2020 census. Part of the town comprises the census-designated place of Rowley. History The area was inhabited by the Agawam people under sachem Ma ...

. The river lies within the estuary of Plum Island Sound, and is formed by the confluence of the Egypt River and Muddy Run in

, with numerous tributaries in the estuary. The river and a few smaller coastal streams together drain about of watershed. Rowley River is navigable for small craft, and home to bass, shad and

alewives The alewife (''Alosa pseudoharengus'') is an anadromous species of herring found in North America. It is one of the "typical" North American shads, attributed to the subgenus ''Pomolobus'' of the genus ''Alosa''. As an adult it is a marine spe ...

. Its banks are lined with tidal salt

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

es, and abound in

clam Clam is a common name for several kinds of bivalve molluscs. The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna, spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the seafloor or riverbeds. Clams have two shel ...

s. Today the river is popular for kayaking and lobstering.

References

* Sammel, Edward A., ''Water resources of the Parker and Rowley River basins, Massachusetts'', USGS Hydrologic Atlas HA-247, 1967.
USGS Parker River Drainage Basin
Rivers of Essex County, Massachusetts Rowley, Massachusetts Rivers of Massachusetts {{Massachusetts-river-stub