Alewife Run at Damariscotta Mills

Each year, it is a Womerlippi tradition to visit the alewives during their run in late May at Damariscotta Mills.  Alewives (Alosa pseudoharengus), also known as river herring or sawbellies, are anadramous.  They spend their life primarily at sea but return to freshwater en masse to spawn.

Alewife populations have dwindled in Maine, but citizen efforts in Damariscotta and Nobleboro have helped the population to rebound.

Maine Rivers website has information about alewife history, ecology, and reproductive biology.

Damariscotta Lake Watershed Association has information about the fish ladder at Damariscotta Mills, which is where the pictures below were taken.

The 2007 Run

The alewives arrive by swimming up the Damariscotta River estuary and into the Great Salt Bay (photo on left) before getting to the ladder that takes them into Damariscotta Lake.  Sea gulls, cormorants, ospreys, eagles, and even an occasional seal hang out in Great Salt Bay to feast on the fish.  Viewers often stand on the bridge.  Photographers flock to hopefully get a photo of eagles or ospreys.  (To get an idea of location, the bridge in the photo on the right is the same bridge I'm standing on to take the photo on the left.  The fish swim in from the bay, under the railroad trestle into the inner bay, and then under the bridge on the right.)

Once under the bridge, the alewives start to mass up.  In the photo on the left the dark areas in the water are the masses of fish (close-up on right).  A large net is in place to keep the alewives from swimming the wrong way into the power plant.

As the fish continue to swim towards the ladder, the water gets shallower and rockier.  Gulls take advantage of this area where the fish are packed in and easily accessed.  The gulls pick them easily out of the water and swallow the fish in only a second or two so that another bird can't take the fish away.

Gulls aren't the only animals harvesting fish in this area.  Historically humans have harvested alewives for food and you can still purchase smoked alewives nearby.  But now most of the alewives that are harvested are used for lobster bait.  The old method of harvesting used dip nets and the wooden chute with flowing water.  (In the photo on the top left, you can see the wooden chute, the net that blocks the fish from the power plant is on the top right, the area where the gulls are is on the right as well.  The bay is beyond view to the top of the photo and the fish would be swimming towards you.)  Now there is a mechanized dipper that catches fish.

Once the alewives make it past the harvesters, they enter the fish ladder.  The original fish ladder was built in 1807.  Since then it has been restored and repaired numerous times with the largest restoration in 1995.  The ladder is a vertical ascent into Damariscotta lake, 42 feet higher than the bay.  The alewives have to swim up and against the rushing current of water.  Along the ladder are shallow pools off to the sides that the fish use to rest before making the next part of the ascent.

After finally making the long and tiring journey from the ocean, up the Damariscotta River, through the Great Salt Bay, passing all the predators along the way, up the torrents of the fish ladder, they have one final push into the calm of Damariscotta lake.  (Video of alewives swimming into lake.)  However, they do have one more predator to avoid - there are often large mouth bass waiting at the top of the lake to snag an exhausted alewife.

Once in the lake, the alewives spawn, and most die.  Some will return to the ocean and make a second trip.  The new generation will stay in the lake until fall and then migrate back out the same way their parents came in.  In the fall along the Damariscotta River you can see schools of young alewives making their way to sea.