Fly Fishing in Maine

The Alewives Arguement

MILLTOWN, New Brunswick - It's late in the alewives' spring run, and overnight just five fish have climbed the fish ladder at the Milltown Dam, which spans the St. Croix River on the Maine-New Brunswick border.

At the top of the ladder, which climbs around the back of the 131-year-old dam, the fish are waiting in a cagelike trap when Lee Sochasky arrives to count and release them. One 10-inch female -- fish No. 36,168 of the season -- is kept for scientific analysis. Big, healthy and filled with eggs, she is likely 5 years old, meaning she hatched in the straight stretch of river between here and the Woodland Dam, 10 miles upstream. In the intervening years she has likely traveled to Georges Bank and possibly as far south as North Carolina. This spring she -- and 36,000 other alewives -- headed home to the St. Croix to reproduce.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/alewive ... 07-08.html

My first thought is "screw the bass". But I would agree with Greg Burr that if the biologists feel there should be more study we need it. There may be positive or negative impact on cold water fisheries such as smelt impact.

I am slightly biased. Did I say "Screw the Bass?"
( The bucket brigade hit my pet lake!)

That was a very good article and the comments that followed it provided more information.
Thanks for the link Tark.
Joe

Here we go again I guess..........The biggest problem with Joan Trials plan, is that no group wants to foot the bill for a long term comprehensive study of alewives above Grand Falls. Until monies are offered there is no chance those of us up river will back such a plan.

Great read there. I think the fundamental issue is whether or not the alewives were native to the area above Grand Falls. And I'm certainly no scientist, but if the alewives were native to the area above the falls, wouldn't there be evidence in the sediment? I would think a few targeted digging expeditions and the resulting lab work would settle the case.

Fish Seven Tree Pond, Sennebec Pond, North Pond, Damarascotta Lake and others in the Mid Coast that have strong Alewife runs and see how much the bass have been impacted. It's really terrible how obese they have become. Something should be done about it!

Downeast smallies are known far and wide to be frail and fragile. That's why nobody ever fishes for them - who wants to go all that distance to catch such weak fish?

Just saw this in today's paper - http://www.pressherald.com/news/epa-ord ... 07-11.html

It's about time.

Lance Wheaton's assertion that "Alewives are ferocious and they kill a lake by eating all the plankton the other fish need to grow," is pretty silly considering the fact that alewives and smallies coexist beautifully in many other places in Maine and the fact that alewives have never decimated a smallie population anywhere - in fact, adult smallies will gorge themselves on adult alewives - besides, why had the alewives never killed his lake before they supposedly did? At the very least, the phased passage of alewives should be implemented - and as we already know, volunteers can be used for a good deal of the fish moving and data collection.

In the case of the st croix, the only thing needed is to open the fishways to allow passage. Not a lot of stocking or moving should be needed once the fishways are open. Mr. Wheaton has some problems with his argument. The adult alewife leave the lakes and impoundments once they spawn and the fry dont stay very long either. It is really a stretch to make the claims he is making. Science does not back up what he is saying. Bass spawning and recruitment can be affected by many factors such as water temp, water level changes and lack of sufficient spawning areas. That system has bigger problems than alewife now that largemouth bass have been confirmed as being in it.

Compromise reached.

http://www.kjonline.com/news/Maine-AG-S ... plan-.html

Sounds like a good compromise and the smart way to proceed

We'll see how this plays out over time. One thing is for sure. This statement:

""The state has always regarded the Alewife Law to be a fisheries management measure with meaning and effect only in that context; it has never considered the statute to be a (Clean Water Act) standard,"

is the fisheries and water quality equivalent of "no controlling legal authority" or "that depends on what you think the meaning of "is" is".

Remember when your sixth grade teacher would point out your prejudices by changing just a word or two in a statement you supported and show how ridiculous what your were saying was. How's this substitution?


"The state has always regarded the Sewer Pipe Law to be a waste management issue with meaning and effect only in that context; it has never considered the statute to be a (Clean Water Act) standard."

Balderdash!

An op-ed from yesterday's Sunday Telegram:

Maine Voices: State alewife policy hurts fishing industry
Stringent limits on the species' reintroduction to the St. Croix River deprive fish harvesters of a critical source of bait.

By NICK BENNETT

AUGUSTA - Gov. LePage could have given a big boost to Maine lobstermen and fishermen by supporting full restoration of the alewife population in the St. Croix River.


The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency provided the governor with an opportunity to change state policy on St. Croix alewives when it recently concluded that the 1995 Maine law that blocks these fish violates the federal Clean Water Act. Instead, the governor rejected the EPA's decision and supported only very limited alewife restoration.

On Aug. 8, Maine Attorney General William Schneider sent a letter to the EPA saying that he disagreed with the agency's decision on Maine's 1995 law.

The letter then went on to say that the governor supports allowing only a small number of alewives into the river, as outlined in a plan developed by the International Joint Commission, which oversees the Boundary Waters Treaty between the United States and Canada.

That plan has no basis in science and is meant to mollify a small group of fishing guides who believe that native alewives pose a threat to non-native smallmouth bass.

The economic importance of alewives is clear. Maine scientists have linked the disappearance of coastal cod stocks to the dramatic decline in the number of alewives compared to historic levels.

Alewives spend their lives at sea but swim up rivers to spawn in the spring. Large numbers of cod used to follow these fish close to shore, where they could be caught more easily, supplying the Maine fishing industry with a lucrative catch.

Alewives are also the preferred spring bait for Maine's lobster industry. They are particularly important now because the federal government has dramatically lowered the allowable catch of Atlantic herring, the other major source of local bait for lobstermen.

With fewer alewives and Atlantic herring, Maine lobstermen must import more bait from away. This is expensive, and using fish from distant places increases the likelihood of importing exotic diseases. Sometimes, Maine lobstermen must even resort to using cowhides as bait due to shortages.

With an alewife potential equal to that of the Kennebec and Penobscot rivers combined, the St. Croix could be one of the best sources of Maine bait for Maine lobstermen. Why on earth are we perpetuating a policy that contributes to bait shortages? The St. Croix alewife run would likely be the largest in Maine if we just stopped blocking the river and allowed the existing fishways to function as designed.

On top of all the other benefits, restoring the St. Croix alewife run would cost nothing because the fishways are already there for alewives to use. Maine just needs to stop blocking them.

There is no evidence that alewives harm other fish. Alewives and smallmouth bass coexist in water bodies throughout Maine and the East Coast of North America.

Scientists with the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service support the free passage of alewives throughout the St. Croix watershed and oppose the plan for limited reintroduction that the governor says he supports.

All of Maine's tribal leaders also have asked the governor to support free passage for St. Croix alewives. The Natural Resources Council of Maine and 50 other fishing, conservation and First Nation organizations in the U.S. and Canada, including the Maine Lobsterman's Association, have all called for opening up the St. Croix.

The governor would receive broad support by supporting a change in Maine law to allow alewives full access to the St. Croix. He could do this by asking the International Joint Commission to use its authority to direct that the fishway at the Grand Falls dam be operated to allow alewives to pass. He could also support efforts in the Legislature to repeal Maine's 1995 law.

The path announced by the attorney general is likely to invite lawsuits, but it won't help Maine's lobstermen, alewife harvesters, commercial fishermen or the health of the St. Croix River. It will also prevent members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe from exercising their sustenance fishing rights.

Many people from diverse points of view urge the governor to reconsider his position on this important issue.

Nick Bennett is staff scientist for the Augusta-based Natural Resources Council of Maine

Time to stop bowing down to a few flat-earth type ignoramuses and let the herring run. If not for common sense and science then for dollars-which fishery is worth more to the Maine economy? I think native lobsters might have a little more value to more people than some imported bass in a few inland waters. I can't believe a few doom and gloom Chicken Littles persuaded Maine to pass such a numb law to close the fish ladders. If I'd known people were so gullible in the legislature to fall for that nonsense I'd set up a business selling "Moon Block" for skin protection against harmful moon beams and make a killing in Augusta. Sheesh!