By Lisa Pohlmann, Special to the BDN Bangor Daily News op-ed For the last few weeks sea-run fish known as alewives have been heading up Maine’s rivers to lay their eggs. Their journey is a breathtaking force of nature to behold, as they fight strong currents, heading upstream in droves. While probably hundreds of millions Read More
Restoring Alewives in Maine Rivers
Throughout our history, NRCM has worked to support healthy fish populations returning to Maine’s rivers, and we’ve had big victories. With removal of the Edwards Dam in 1999 and the Fort Halifax Dam in 2008, more than two million alewives (river herring) now return to the Kennebec River each spring. The Penobscot River Restoration Project, completed in 2016, is also providing tremendous benefits for alewives and the full range of fish and wildlife in the Penobscot River and throughout the Gulf of Maine.
Return of Alewives on St. Croix River Celebrated
by John Holyoke, BDN staff Bangor Daily News news story BAILEYVILLE, Maine — For nearly 20 years, conservationists and, at times, state natural resource agencies, have sought to open the St. Croix River watershed to alewives. Those river herring had their passage at dam fishways officially blocked in 1995 due to concerns that their presence Read More
Return of Alewives to St. Croix River Celebrated
by Susan Sharon MPBN news story There was a homecoming celebration on the St. Croix River in Baileyville today — for an ecologically and culturally significant species of fish. Alewives were almost completely driven out of the waterway that borders Maine and Canada, where fishing guides have long viewed the native fish as a threat Read More
Sebasticook to the Sea: Alewives’ Perilous Lives Crucial to Ecosystem, Economy
Matt Hongoltz-Hetling, MaineTodayMedia staff Morning Sentinel news story BENTON — Alewives are little fish with a big story. Each year, billions of the silver fish hatch out of eggs in the cool waters of the Sebasticook River and embark on a dangerous journey to the sea and back again. Those that return must make it Read More
Outdoors: Alewives Return in Numbers
Dave Sartwell, outdoor writer Gloucester Times This could be a banner year for the return of alewives to the North Shore. Although we are still early in the run, all indications are that the work being done by a host of different governmental agencies and volunteer organizations and the restrictions being put in place on Read More
A Home Run for Maine Alewives
The Benton Alewife Festival is set to celebrate a record return of fish hatched from eggs that were laid in 2009. By Matt Hongoltz-Hetling, Morning Sentinel Portland Press Herald news story BENTON – Alewives are on pace for a record run in Benton, whose residents will celebrate their relationship with the migratory fish Saturday during Read More
Maine Alewives Heading for Newly Opened Fishways This Week
In time, the St. Croix River could have the largest alewife run in the country. The Associated Press Portland Press Herald news story BAILEYVILLE — Alewives are expected to swim upriver of the Grand Falls dam on eastern Maine’s St. Croix River this week for the first time in 22 years. Lawmakers passed a law Read More
Alewives Swimming Up Maine’s St. Croix River
The Associated Press Boston Globe news story BAILEYVILLE, Maine (AP) — Alewives are expected to swim upriver of the Grand Falls dam on eastern Maine’s St. Croix River this week for the first time in 22 years. Lawmakers passed a law this spring allowing the fish, also known as river herring, to swim upriver of Read More
Dam Opens for First Time in 22 Years for Alewives
WLBZ-2 news story BAILEYVILLE, Maine (NEWS CENTER) — Alewives are a sea-run fish that grow in the ocean but come back to the lakes to spawn. But for the past two decades these fish have been limited to where they can go. But thanks to a new law, that is all about to change. In Read More
