Town dock, Winter Harbor, Maine, August 12, 2017. Lobster boats tied up after the morning lobster boat races. Top center, the wood deck of the town dock with spectators visible. Below the dock, an aluminum ramp down to a wood float with skiffs tied up. Photo was taken while race participants were receiving racing prizes nearby. More than 100 boats were registered to race. Acadia Aerial Photography
Organized & Funded Effort Begins Alewife Restoration, Part 1
The alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus, is an anadromous species of herring also called river herring. Although alewives and other anadromous fish such as shad and salmon are born and spawn in fresh water; they spend the rest of their lives in salt water. Alewives and shad tend to return to the ponds where they were hatched to spawn.
Alewives are bait for many species. In spring they become the main source of lobster bait, which allows fishermen to save herring until July to use for new shell lobster.
Penobscot resident Bailey Bowden, who since 2015 has been Chair of the Town Alewife Committee, reported, “The town has always had the right to manage its alewife fishery, but due to lack of reporting the requested biological data, the town lost that right in 2010.”
Although the town hired a warden, due to the continued failure to collect the biological data for the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR), Bowden suggested the Town form an alewife committee to ensure that there would be enough people to collect the data.
For the last three years a dedicated alewife committee made up of Bowden and David, Edward, and Tobey Wardwell have collected all the data the DMR has requested. Former member William Hutchins left in 2016.
The data consists of collecting 25 alewives per week for four consecutive weeks each May. From those hundred alewives collected, committee members measure length and determine sex and whether the fish is an alewife, also called river herring, or a blueback herring. (The stomach cavity linings of alewives are
Winter Harbor Race Video
