AMAZING ALEWIVES - LIVE WEBINAR 

Join KELT and University of Southern Maine Professor Karen Wilson to Learn About Alewives!

Each spring, millions of alewives migrate up Maine’s rivers and streams to spawn, and in the summer, their millions of offspring migrate back to the sea. KELT is pleased to host a talk by Dr. Karen Wilson on June 4th to present information about these interesting and important fish. This webinar presentation will provide an opportunity to learn more about alewives, their population and migration, and their interactions with other species in the Gulf of Maine.  Attendees will have the chance to ask questions about alewives and the local alewife run at Nequasset. This free online presentation starts at 6:00pm on Zoom. After you register, we will send you an email with a link to connect to the program.

Dr. Wilson is an associate research faculty member with University of Southern Maine’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy.  She is currently working on an alewife research project at Highland Lake in Windham and has studied how alewives create economic and ecologic connections between Maine’s lakes and rivers and the Gulf of Maine. 

Each year since 2012, KELT volunteers have counted fish at the Nequasset Fish Ladder during the annual alewife run. Volunteers sign-up for two hour shifts between 6am and 8pm, and the results are then used to estimate the total number of fish that travel to Nequasset Lake each year. It takes most alewives about 4 years to grow to adults and then return to the lake to spawn. The results of the count are important for evaluating the health of the Nequasset alewife run and the effectiveness of the fish ladder.