Alewife Harvesters of Maine

With heavy hearts, we had to say goodbye to our dear friend and Board Member, Ed Courtenay (pictured to the far left). Our deepest condolences go out to his family and loved ones. Ed made a big impact on his community and those lucky enough to be around him. He was a longtime Fish Warden to the Town of Warren and contributed greatly to our organization’s efforts. He will be dearly missed by all of us at Alewife Harvesters of Maine.

We hope to see everyone at the Forum. Our Annual meeting will take place on Saturday morning (details below) and we will have a booth on both Friday and Saturday. Come say hello and tell us about your River Herring restoration work, how your River Herring Harvest is going or anything else you want to share about River Herring. See you there!

March 7^th 2020, 10:30am – 12:00pm, At the Golf Club at the Samoset Resort

Agenda:

10:30am     Alewife Harvesters of Maine Business Meeting,

Treasurer’s Report and board members introduction

10:40am     The Road to 50 Million Alewives!

Three organizations will present on some of the progress made to restore river herring to Maine’s coast in 2019.

                  Landis Hudson, Maine Rivers

                  Brett Ciccotelli, Downeast Salmon Federation

                  Nate Gray, Department of Marine Resources, on behalf of the Alewife Interaction Committee

11:25am     Department of Marine Resources update

Updates on any Federal or State rule changes, restoration projects from 2019 and Department priorities looking forward in 2020.

The Maine Fishermen’s Forum is HERE! Alewife Harvesters of Maine will be there with a booth and our annual session. Our session will be:

Saturday March 2nd from 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

Golf Club Room

Samoset Resort – 220 Warren Street, Rockport, ME 04856

We will be discussing the status of our fishery and river herring restoration efforts across our state. Your participation in our session is essential to our goal of collaboratively restoring 54 million river herring to Maine rivers.

Have you been working on river herring restoration? Please come to our booth and tell us about it; put your pin on our map. We hope to see you there and talk alewives!

Are you looking for fresh bait this spring? River herring, alewives and blueback herring, are a good source of bait for lobster and halibut fishing. River herring are typically harvested in May until early June.

Below are a list of all towns that currently harvest river herring commercially:

• Alna
• Bath
• Benton
• Cherryfield
• Dresden
• East Machias
• Ellsworth
• Franklin
• Gouldsboro
• Jefferson
• Newcastle
• Nobleboro
• Orland
• Perry
• Phippsburg
• Steuben
• Sullivan
• Vassalboro
• West Bath
• Warren
• Woolwich

You’re invited to​ River Herring: Open for Harvest​

Hosted by Alewife Harvesters of Maine​

When: Thursday September 14th from 9​:00 ​am – 3​:00 ​pm

Where: Jeff’s Catering in Brewer

For meeting documents contact Sarah Madronal, sarah@mainesalmonrivers.org or follow this link.

Join us for a day focused on river herring restoration work and other efforts to open river herring runs for harvest in Maine. Come hear about restoration success stories as well as past and current efforts to open harvest runs across the state. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss what success looks like for river herring restoration and explore how we can get there together as individuals, communities, organizations and government with shared knowledge of all of the issues, management practices, and mutually understood expectations for next steps to open river herring harvests and continue river restoration work. Mike Brown, Department of Marine Resources, will give a presentation on the how to’s and current management practices of opening a river herring harvest run with ​a facilitated ​question​ and answer period. All are welcome​ and we encourage all who are involved in the river herring fishery in Maine to come and share their experiences opening or continuing river herring harvests​.

Alewife Harvesters of Maine would like to thank our partners for sponsoring this meeting including, ​Department of Marine ​Resources, Downeast Fisheries Partnership, Downeast Salmon Federation, and Maine​ Center for Coastal ​Fisheries.​

Agenda  

9:00                 Welcome and Focus for the Day – Jeff Pierce, AHOM

9:10                 Working Together Today

Develop Working Agreements

9:15                 Making Restoration Happen

Panel members reflect on their experiences restoring runs

• Panelists: Nate Gray (DMR), Anne Hayden (DFP), Jeff Pierce (AHOM), Dwayne Shaw (DSF), and Mike Thalhauser (MCCF)

10:30               Stretch break

10:45               Identify What Leads to Success

Break into table discussions with panel members around the questions:

1. What does success look like? How do we define it?
2. What can we learn from our collective experiences about:
   1. The elements that fuel success?
   2. The roadblocks?
3. What are the big statewide questions that we want to answer?

Table facilitators will write responses on flip charts and post them

11:35               The Story of Opening a Recent River Herring Run – Darrell Young

12:00               Buffett lunch

12:45               Process and Regulations for Setting up a River Herring Run

Mike Brown, DMR –  Presentation (30 minutes), Q & A including topics from the morning session (45 minutes)

2:00                 Identify Major Elements of What Success Looks Like

From the table discussions and Darrell’s Donnell Pond project, summarize what we are aiming for and how we can incorporate into existing/future projects

2:30                 Common Understanding of Next Steps and Accountability

What needs to happen next?  Who will do what?  How will accountability work?

2:50                 Closing Remarks – Jeff Pierce, AHOM

3:00                 Conclude

Please contact Sarah Madronal for more information​ and RSVP to sarah@mainesalmonrivers.org​. Feel free to share this meeting announcement with anyone who may be interested.

Welcome to Alewife Harvesters of Maine’s new and improved website! Our mission is to encourage and promote conservation, habitat restoration, and unimpeded passage; to promote sustainability in harvest plans; and to encourage community-based management plans that ensure the health of the alewife and blueback herring runs, so that they can be harvested annually.

Check back often for river herring resource materials, updates on the current river herring season and ways to get involved with river herring in your community. Also follow us on Facebook!