At a meeting held recently in Princeton, a Department of Marine Resources plan to reintroduce alewives in the Grand Falls flowage area of the St. Croix River was opposed by local fishermen, guides, and sportsmen’s organizations. The opposition to the reintroduction scheduled for 1995 focused on Spednic Lake, an important smallmouth bass and landlocked salmon fishery located in the headwaters of the St. Croix.

Members of the Chiputneticook Lakes International Conservancy are more than upser waters via Grand Falls flowage. The anadromous fish have been excluded from Spednic since 1990, when the St. Croix River Steering Committee, which manages the fishery resources of the drainage, closed the fishway at Grand Falls Dam to assess alewife production in the flowage. The fishway was scheduled to be reopened this year, but was postponed so that the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife could complete smallmouth bass studies in the flowage.

Lance Wheaton, spokesman for the CLIC, said the organization wanted to get the alewife problem settled once and for all. “When swarms of alewives get into a lake, something has to give,” said Wheaton, who guides fishermen at Spednic and East Grand lakes. “We’ve had six years of poor fishing at Spednic because of alewives that got into the lake in the 1980s. They took food from smelts and young bass and preyed on them, too. Don’t let anyone tell you alewives aren’t meat eaters,” he said.

Rick Jordan, a DIFW fisheries biologist assigned to Region C in Machias, agreed with Wheaton. Jordan explained that, like smelts, alewife fry feed on plankton and the insects and their own young. The biologist allowed that the annual 10- to 14-foot drawdown of Spednic also could be a factor in the decline of the lake’s bass population.

While scuba diving to record the spawning success of bass in Spednic Lake during the 1980s, Jordan said he observed an abundance of smallmouth fry in late June. By July, however, the number of fry had declined dramatically. The question is, did the abrupt decline occur because of depleted food supplies or predation resulting from the presence of alewives?

In a letter to DIFW Commissioner Bucky Owen, the CLIC referred to a study of alewives conducted in 1977 by DMR fisheries biologist Stewart Sherburne. The study showed that viral erythrocetic necrosis, a disease brought into fresh water by alewives, was contagious to smelts. Not surprisingly, the letter expressed concerns that the disease might infect other fish.

Because of the St. Croix River’s international location, the Fisheries Steering Committee comprises the following agencies: Maine DIFW, DMR, Atlantic Salmon Commission, Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans, New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources, St. Croix International Waterway Commission.

The consensus of the committee is there has been a significant decline in Spednic’s bass population coincident with the presence of alewives. Accordingly, Lew Flagg, DMR’s director of anadromous fisheries, feels it would be unwise to reintroduce alewives into Spednic Lake now that its bass fishery is showing signs of recovery. Flagg said alewives reintroduced above Grand Falls could be excluded from Spednic by closing the fishway located on the Canadian side of the Vanceboro Dam.

The CLIC, however, is adamant about not wanting alewives reintroduced above Grand Falls – or shad restored to the St. Croix drainage. Perhaps you know that a shad restoration program is being considered for the St. Croix and other Maine rivers.

Lance Wheaton hooked onto that issue by saying that the CLIC did not want shad restored to the St. Croix and if such a program were initiated it could result in the CLIC not voting for the $10 million hatchery bond issue that includes shad restoration.

Personally, I think that would be a mistake. If the bond to repair and improve state hatcheries fails to pass in the November elections, it would be disastrous for Maine’s inland fisheries.

There are, of course, economic and environmental considerations on both sides of this St. Croix River scenario. Alewives provide food for a variety of fish and wildlife species, as well as bait for lobstermen. I’m told, though, that sardine cuttings often are used for bait by Cobscook Bay lobstermen. On the other hand, the trophy bass produced in Spednic Lake provided income for area guides and commercial campowners. And now, since alewives have been excluded from the lake, the fishery is showing signs of recovery.

There you have it, Sport, more conflict and controversy. Anyone care to make a cast at unsnarling it?