Fish could soon be back in brook again (Alewife restoration, Maine)

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/news/local/070507alewife.html

CAPE ELIZABETH - There was a time when Alewife Brook sparkled with flashes of silver in May, as thousands of alewives made their way against the current, traveling from the ocean to their spawning ground in Great Pond.

Historically, lobstermen harvested the small fish for bait, and farmers plowed them under the earth as fertilizer. Along with blueback herring, alewives remain a prime source of food for the larger fish, birds and mammals of Casco Bay.

Annual alewife runs in this brook died out in the 1980s, however, probably because of road work, low water levels and beaver dams.

John Ney, a science professor at Southern Maine Community College, has been on a mission to restore the fish runs. Working with state and federal agencies, Ney began stocking Great Pond with the fish in 1999. The pond has been stocked most years since then, with the ultimate goal of establishing a permanent migratory population.

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