An important step forward for restoring alewives to the St. Croix river Fishermen, environmentalists, anglers, representatives from the Passamaquoddy tribal government, federal agencies and the Canadian government have spoken: Alewives should be allowed to return to their native St. Croix river. At a legislative hearing Monday, speaker after speaker rose in support of a bill, L.D. 72, that would immediately open many fishways at the river’s dams to Alewives. Our own Sean Mahoney, EVP & Director, CLF ME, testified in support of the bill, arguing, “L.D. 72 is simple, it does the right thing and its benefits – to the watershed, the ecosystem and the many whose livelihoods would be enhanced by a return of the alewives – would be relatively immediate.” The legislature is currently considering three bills, and read more…

The alewife, an anadromous fish that lives in the ocean but travels up rivers each spring to spawn,  is a “keystone species”  that provides food for many animals, birds and larger fish species native to Maine’s marine and fresh waters.  Despite its recognized economic and environmental  importance, Maine’s alewife population has declined precipitously, in large part because dams block access to alewife spawning grounds. A movement is afoot to restore alewives. For example, last summer the lower two dams on the Penobscot River were removed and a third dam was bypassed, opening 1000 miles of river to alewives and other anadromous fish like salmon. This year, the Passamaqouddy Nation, Conservation Law Foundation, other organizations and concerned citizens are working to reverse a 2008 law that bans alewives form 98% of read more…

This week on Talking Fish, commercial fisherman Tony Austin explains why the implementation of the Magnuson-Stevens Act isn’t working to rebuild stocks; Fish Talk in the News sees NOAA release a draft rule to open areas currently closed to groundfishing and right whale populations beginning to rebuild.

In the late 1980’s, more than 2.6 million alewives were counted at the head of tide on the St. Croix River.  That was, and remains, the largest run of this critical species in Maine and New England.  But politics and willful ignorance of the facts led to enactment of a law that closed off access to the upper St. Croix and reduced the numbers of alewives from 2.6 million to 900 by 2002.  It’s well past time to right this wrong, repeal the shortsighted and politically expedient law and restore alewives to the St. Croix. The law at issue requires the owner of the Grand Falls Dam to keep the fishway at the structure – which works perfectly well – closed during the Spring return of alewives to their native read more…

The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) today filed a lawsuit against the State of Maine challenging the law that continues to prevent alewives, a key forage and bait fish, from accessing their native habitat in the St. Croix River watershed. A prior suit by CLF against the Environmental Protection Agency resulted in EPA determining that the Maine law was not consistent with the Clean Water Act and that the state should restore alewives to the St. Croix River.

This week on Talking Fish, WHOI scientist Sarah Cooley discusses the effects of ocean acidification on fisheries, the All About Aquaculture series continues with an explanation of the various types and methods of aquaculture, and a weekly update checks in on New England’s Fish Talk in the News.

As mentioned in prior posts here and here, CLF’s lawsuit to reopen the St. Croix River to alewives resulted in this letter from EPA agreeing that the Maine Alewife Law violated water quality standards for the St. Croix. Yesterday, the Maine Attorney General responded to that letter here and the response is disappointing to say the least.  The first half of the letter is not even related to the Alewife Law but rather a gratuitous attempt to bolster the State’s efforts to restrict the jurisdiction of the Passamaquoddy Tribe and other Maine tribes.  The second half of the letter does not contest the findings in EPA’s letter that the Alewife Law constitutes a change in the St Croix’s water quality standard but rather attempts to justify that change as a read more…

This week on TalkingFish.org: read about sea scallops in the last edition of the Local Summer Fisheries series, public support for opening the St. Croix river to alewives is evident in a Bangor Daily News editorial, and read about what’s new in New England’s fisheries in the weekly Fish Talk in the News.

Pressure is building to reopen the St. Croix River to the alewife, a critical forage fish. Today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a letter adopting the recommendations made in our lawsuit seeking to restore alewives, a key forage and bait fish, to the St. Croix River.