Your Questions, Answered: Maines Alewives

Throughout this month a line of trucks may be seen at landings along certain rivers and streams in Maine. Inside the trucks sit patient lobstermen, waiting for the opportunity to buy a few totes of fresh alewives. These anadromous fish, called gaspereau in Canada, are a sure sign that spring has arrived in Maine.

Photo courtesy of Maine Boats Home and Harbors

Alewives were once found in nearly every stream, river, pond or lake in the state. The fish are members of the herring family, close cousins to blueback herring and shad. Alewives are born in freshwater, migrate to the Gulf of Maine to mature, and then return to freshwater streams to spawn. Every May and June, adult alewives cluster around the mouth of freshwater streams waiting for a subtle clue in the water before heading upstream. When the run starts, the stream will be jammed with the silvery backs of fish. The males return to spawn when they are about three years old; females return when they are four of five years old.

Prior to European settlement, alewife spawning runs took place throughout the Gulf of Maine. Alewives are rugged little fish. One early historian wrote, “No stream seems to be too small for them if its waters are derived from a pond, and there can have been hardly an accessible pond in the whole State they did not visit.” Native Americans and European settlers relied on the spring migrations for much-needed fresh food after the long winter months.

Unlike salmon, adult alewives don’t automatically die after spawning. The majority of adults turn around and head back to sea, eating zooplankton and insect larvae as they go. In the ocean they are a prized prey for just about everything else, including larger fish, sea birds, seals, and other marine mammals.

The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) sets the East coast management plan for alewives and the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) implements that plan in the state. In Maine local towns can manage the alewife harvest on rivers and streams within their borders with DMR approval. If approved for commercial harvests, each town must submit an annual harvest plan to DMR that includes conservation measures, such as a mandated three-day closure each week. Fresh alewives are eagerly sought after by lobstermen as bait for the spring and early summer lobster fishery. Last year more than 2.5 million pounds of alewives were harvested in Maine, with a value of $1.1 million.

Jeff Pierce has been president and executive director of the Alewife Harvesters Association since its formation in 2006. During his tenure he has seen a resurgence of alewife in Maine as fish-blocking dams have been removed, water quality improved, and fish passage ways built or restored. The latest success came earlier this year when the ASMFC approved alewife harvests at five new sites: Sewall Pond, Wight Pond, the Pennamaquan River, Chemo pond and Pushaw Lake. “This is a success story for Maine river herring and Maine communities. We’re very pleased with this ASMFC decision, and excited to bring as many river herring runs online as possible,” Pierce said at the time.

After two decades of service, Pierce stepped down as executive director of the Association in March this year. Bailey Bowden, chair of the Penobscot Shellfish Committee and Bagaduce River Monitor, is the new executive director.

For more information on Maine’s alewives, visit Alewives Harvesters of Maine or https://www.maine.gov/dmr/fisheries/sea-run-fisheries/programs-and-projects/river-herring-alewife-fact-sheet.