Presumpscot River
Alewives in Cumberland & Oxford Canal -- 1861
"The loss of these fish from the waters where they were once abundant is a serious one to the community. I do not recommend the artificial propagation of the shad and alewife, but it may be safely urged, that by a little modification of the laws necessary for their preservation at certain seasons of the years, and proper provision and attention to fishways to enable them to find the proper summer haunts, they could be again turned up our rivers and streams, and made to fill our numerous lakes with their young, which would thus ensure an annual return of them, sufficient to keep up the supply for propagation, and afford at the same time a vast addition to the subsistence of the community by their surplus. They are not all gone. Every spring, shoals of them, though not in the vast multitudes of old, range along our coast, and are led by their instincts to seek the fresh waters for the purposes of continuing their species.
"Three years ago, in the month of May, in company with a friend, while passing by the lower lock of the Cumberland and Oxford Canal, in the city of Portland, our attention was drawn to the a crowd of men standing by the side of the lock, several of whom had long-handled nets, with which they were fishing, or rather dipping out fish from the water. On coming up, we saw that they were catching alewives in great numbers. It appeared that these fish, in their peregrinations along the coast, had been attracted by the fresh water of the canal, and instinctively entered it in order, as they supposed, to follow up to its source, (Sebago Lake,) but were brought to a standstill by the upper gate of the lock. The men engaged there then shut the lower gate, and commenced catching them. As soon as those of them that were confined in the lock were all caught, the men opened the lower gate again, and admitted a lot more of them, and thus a wholesale destruction of them went on. I supposed that some of them might possibly work their way up, when the several locks should be opened for the passage of boats, and thus Sebago made a breeding place for them, but on inquiry, am told that there are few or none seen there. Now it would be a very easy matter to stock that lake with young herrings (alewives) by proprietors of the canal forbidding any of them to be caught on certain days, and placing men along the route to let them go through the gates into the lake. Indeed, it seems that by renting the privilege of fishing for them on certain days, some considerable revenue might accrue to the company, while the production of the fish would again become a benefit to the section of country through with the canal passes. The same system might be adopted on many streams by having fish-ways or fish-locks, to aid their ascent, with much benefit to the country and no detriment to the mill interests."
Source: Boardman, Samuel L. 'Aquaeculture': in Ninth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Maine Board of Agriculture. 1864. Augusta, Maine. Stevens & Sayward, Printers to the State.
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