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Counting Towers Counting towers are a very simple and inexpensive way to count fish in a shallow, narrow, clear water stream. The viewing tower on one bank must be tall enough for the viewer to see all the way across the stream. A fence is built across part of the stream from the other bank to direct the fish toward the tower. An area of light-colored plastic is often put on the stream floor to make passing fish more visible to the counter. The draw-back to this census method is that there's no way to temporarily halt the passage of fish. A counter has to be on the tower 24 hours a day in order to get a total count of passing fish. Return to Activity Text and graphics by USFWS staff Last modified 18 January, 2006