Maine has an opportunity to restore access to an entire watershed that once supported extraordinary runs of migratory fish, including the alewife, a keystone species. Photo: Ecophotography
September 15, 2026 (Portland, ME) – Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and Upstream have filed a petition with state agencies in Maine pushing to restore fish passage in the Cobbosseecontee watershed. Restoring fish passage opens the way for alewives, blueback herring, American eels, shad, Atlantic salmon, and other migratory fish to return to habitat blocked by dams.
“Maine has an opportunity to restore access to an entire watershed that once supported extraordinary runs of migratory fish, including the alewife, a keystone species,” said Sean Mahoney, CLF vice president for Maine. “The state must take the steps necessary to determine how we can begin bringing these fish back to the Cobbosseeconte.”
For thousands of years, the Kennebec and Cobbosseecontee watersheds supported abundant runs of sea-run fish. Alewives, river herring, shad, eels, and salmon traveled from the ocean up the rivers each spring to reach spawning grounds throughout the watershed. These fish were an important source of food for Indigenous people throughout the region. They also played a critical role as building blocks in our coastal ecosystems and are important to the health of New England’s fisheries serving as food for other species and bait fish for lobstermen.
The construction of dams fundamentally changed that ecosystem as river herring were all but wiped out from our coastal rivers. Dams on the Cobbosseecontee Stream effectively barred sea-run fish from reaching miles of historic and important spawning and rearing habitat in the watershed.
“The lack of fish passage has been an issue since the first dam on the Cobbosseecontee was built in the 1760s,” said Steve Brooke, Chairman of the Board of Directors at Upstream. “This is Maine’s change to right wrongs of the past, to restore access to habitat for economically and ecologically valuable native sea-run fish in the lower Cobbosseecontee watershed.”
Restoring fish passage using Maine’s fishway law has worked elsewhere in Maine. CLF and our partners successfully restored access to the Presumpscot River, resulting in the return of alewives and blueback herring to their native spawning grounds. Reconnecting waters can help restore migratory fish, strengthen fisheries, and revive an essential part of Maine’s cultural heritage.
Read the petition here.
Experts are available for further comment.
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