Benton looking to learn from alewives’ return

BENTON – Selectmen hope to turn the return of alewives to the Sebasticook River into a source of revenue by reviving historic licensing fees for people or companies wanting to harvest the fish.

“The town had license authority, and we’re seeking it again,” Selectman Richard Lawrence said. “It’s bound to be profitable.”

Before the Edwards Dam was built in 1838, locals would catch 10- to 12-inch alewives and pickle them for food or dry and smoke them for use over the winter.

Today, the alewife, which is looked at as a building block of river restoration, is used primarily as lobster bait.

The dam’s breaching in 1999 allowed alewives to return to Benton. Last spring, more than 130,000 fish were pumped into trucks at the base of the Fort Halifax dam and moved upriver and to historic spawning habitat throughout the entire watershed.

Maine Rivers director Naomi Schalit said alewives played a major role in the Maine economy even in earliest times. Maine Rivers is a division of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

Alewives also contribute to maritime and freshwater food chains, with both adult and young fish serving as food for several other species.

In fresh water, alewives are eaten by largemouth and smallmouth bass, brown trout and salmon, while striped bass, cod and haddock eat them in the open ocean. Osprey, bald eagles, great blue herons and other birds feast on the alewife migration every spring.