There have been no new alewives in Muscongus Brook for a few days now. Only about 5 fish seen below the fish ladder today. A handful are apparently still in the culvert by evidence of their fins breaking the surface in there every now and then. I believe they are mostly making it into the pond. Some locals have told me that these Bremen alewives move more at night. With such warm water in the brook some days, this may be true. I have only seen scattered handfuls of them above the fish ladder. This run effort I estimate to be of about 6-800 fish. Perhaps we'll see more when the tides come around again extra high in a couple of weeks.
There have been some drastic changes in some areas along the Maine coast regarding fishing gear type for this and the next few years. The waters of Bremen are included. This is not good news for the already struggling local lobster economy. Many lobstermen fish for their own bait targeting menhaden and atlantic herring. Unfortunately it is known that blueback herring and alewives (river herring) are sometimes caught accidentally in this fishery. The attached graph explains the problem and has the complete attention of the federal fishing regulators. The solutions are not easy and for some fishermen painful.
The Bremen Alewife project is one of many small groups doing their best to turn this graph around. I work very hard on this project and am always confident this is something good for the Bremen fishermen.
There is to be a public meeting at 10AM next Wednesday at the Bremen Town Center to
discuss how these new regulations effect Bremen. MEDMR commissioner George Lapointe
will attend as well as Sea Run Fisheries director Pat Keliher. There is some misdirected anger being placed on this project, and hopefully this meeting will bring explanation and restore continued support from the town.
Contributing David Wilkins
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