St. Croix alewife bill heads to its hearing

A legislative bill to again close the upper portion of the St. Croix River to the passage of alewives, which has been the focus of a contentious debate Downeast, will be the subject of a public hearing by the legislature's Marine Resources Committee on Monday, April 27. The hearing will be held at 10 a.m. in room 206 of the Cross Building in Augusta. While the Senate had voted to refer the bill to the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, the House had insisted on referring to the Marine Resources Committee, and the Senate finally concurred.
Rep. Beth Turner of Burlington is sponsoring LD 800, An Act To Prevent Passage of Alewives through the Grand Falls Dam on the St. Croix River, at the request of Grand Lake Stream guides. In 1995 both the Grand Falls and Woodland dams were closed to alewife passage under legislation that was passed at the request of the sporting guides, who believe that the smallmouth bass fishery in the upper St. Croix River watershed had collapsed in the 1980s because of larger alewife runs. In 2008, though, legislation was enacted to reopen the Woodland dam, and in 2013 alewives were able to return to the upper St. Croix watershed, following a 19-year absence from their historic spawning grounds, after legislation was approved to reopen the Grand Falls dam.
Members of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, led by the Schoodic Riverkeepers, had pushed for reopening the dams, and U.S., Canadian and Maine fisheries regulators and state legislators agreed with them. They point out that alewives are native to the St. Croix and previously ran far up the watershed and that research now shows that alewives and smallmouth bass successfully coexist. They also believe that reestablishing a healthy alewife run in the St. Croix watershed will benefit both freshwater and marine ecosystems and other species.
The guides, though, have not changed their position and believe that alewives are not native to the upper St. Croix lakes. A new nonprofit, Save the St. Croix Fishery, has been formed by the Grand Lake Stream Guides Association, which has threatened to bring a lawsuit against the state for reopening the dams. The nonprofit's website, <savethestcroixfishery.org>, claims that alewives compete with other fish for food and threaten native populations of trout and landlocked salmon. The website also claims that alewives are an invasive species and destroyed the Spednic Lake fishery. In a local advertisement, the guides state that alewives will ruin the West Grand Lake fishery. They believe the bill should have been referred to the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, since it will affect inland waters.