Grand Lake Stream guides: Ready to work with tribe

The Grand Lake Stream Guides Association has the utmost respect for and values Gov. Billy Nicholas and the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s efforts to see that the law and proper government procedure be followed on LD 1957, An Act To Restore Diadromous Fish To The St. Croix River. This bill as originally written would have allowed for the unchecked passage of diadromous fish (fish that live in both salt and fresh water) including anadromous alewives (live in salt water, spawn in fresh water) to the upper St. Croix River drainage.

More scientific facts are needed to determine whether anadromous alewives had natural access to the upper reaches of the St. Croix River before the original fish ladders deemed inadequate were redesigned and rebuilt. The updated fish ladders granted passage to alewives above natural barriers at Milltown Falls and Grand Falls, and in a few years the alewive population exploded to a count of 2.6 million fish and the world class smallmouth bass fishery on Spednic Lake was decimated. Even if the dams were removed, the blasting of natural ledges that made the falls, as late as the 1960s and again in 1980, may provide unnatural passage to diadromous fish, and threaten inland sport fisheries.

The state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has also documented six lakes in the Down East region where landlocked salmon growth rates are compromised due to the competition between anadromous alewives and rainbow smelts, resulting in low smelt populations. Smelts are the key forage fish that grow big landlocked salmon. Landlocked salmon, the Maine “state” fish, are very geographically specific and were native to only four Maine watersheds. Seventy-five percent of all landlocked salmon stocked in the state, said to be the purest strain in the United States, come from the Grand Lake Stream hatchery located on the west branch of the St. Croix River. Alewives also carry diseases that could potentially be communicated to salmon that will be used for milt production at the hatchery.

In 1995, a bill was passed into law to close the fish ladders and protect the economically important inland sport fisheries on the upper St. Croix River. In 2001, a bill supported by the Department of Marine Resources, which has jurisdiction over diadromous fish, and many environmental special interest groups, was introduced to allow alewives passage to the upper St. Croix watershed. It was narrowly defeated.

Eight years later the same special interest groups and DMR are backing similar proposed legislation. This time the Joint Committee on Marine Resources thought it had sole jurisdiction over the issue. Fortunately, Nicholas met with Gov. John Baldacci to see that jurisdiction be properly shared with the Passamaqouddy Tribe and the DIF&W, not just DMR, because this bill would affect tribal waters as well as inland fisheries.

Allowing alewives to spawn in the St. Croix River will not bring back the sea run Atlantic salmon, or the ground fish in the Gulf of Maine. Alewife and river herring populations are said to be on the decline in all of Maine’s “free flowing” rivers. If this is the case, DMR should be looking at the bigger problem. Catch and release practices, no-kill regulations, and more conservative bag limits have done a lot to help protect and restore many inland fisheries. These practices could also protect and restore many marine resources that are in jeopardy.

The Grand Lake Stream Guides Association supports Billy Nicholas and the Passamaquoddy Tribe for their effort to see that due process is followed.

Without their work, the powerful environmental special interest groups and DMR would have passed this legislation with no regard for the indigenous people and local economy. The guides look forward to working with the tribe as good stewards of the land, and protecting the resources our livelihoods depend on.

J.R. Mabee of Bangor is vice president of the Grand Lake Stream Guides Association.