Subject: Support free access for native alewives in the St. Croix River!
Full Name:
William Houston
City:
Kingfield
State / Province:
Maine
Subject: Support free access for native alewives in the St. Croix River!
Dear Colonel Feir and Director Appleby:
As you know, Maine has unilaterally blocked alewives from the vast majority of the St. Croix River since 1995. As a result of this misguided policy, the run plunged from more than 2 million fish in the 1980s to only a few thousand fish in 2008. We appreciate that the IJC has made restoration of alewives a high priority, but the proposed Adaptive Management Plan is too limited to allow a successful restoration effort.
Alewives are a regional and international resource, and their numbers have plummeted in recent decades. People all over Maine and in other states are working hard to restore these fish. But, on the St. Croix, Maine blocks these fish on purpose based on the misperception that they will harm smallmouth bass, a non-native species. The IJC’s proposed plan will continue to block alewives from 70% of their ancestral habitat and severely limits the pace at which alewives can repopulate the remaining 30%. It will limit the pace of restoration even more if smallmouth bass reproduction is low, even if it is low for reasons having nothing to do with alewives. This is not acceptable.
Alewives have countless benefits. They are food for the struggling groundfish stocks in the Gulf of Maine and countless other species of mammals and birds. They are also prized bait for Maine’s lobster industry, which is facing drastic reductions in available bait from other sources.
Alewives and smallmouth bass coexist happily throughout Maine, the rest of the US East Coast, and Canada. They can and will do so in the St. Croix.
Please act now and allow free access for alewives to the St. Croix River starting in 2011.
Subject: Support free access for native alewives in the St. Croix River!
Dear Colonel Feir and Director Appleby:
As you know, Maine has unilaterally blocked alewives from the vast majority of the St. Croix River since 1995. As a result of this misguided policy, the run plunged from more than 2 million fish in the 1980s to only a few thousand fish in 2008. We appreciate that the IJC has made restoration of alewives a high priority, but the proposed Adaptive Management Plan is too limited to allow a successful restoration effort.
Alewives are a regional and international resource, and their numbers have plummeted in recent decades. People all over Maine and in other states are working hard to restore these fish. But, on the St. Croix, Maine blocks these fish on purpose based on the misperception that they will harm smallmouth bass, a non-native species. The IJC’s proposed plan will continue to block alewives from 70% of their ancestral habitat and severely limits the pace at which alewives can repopulate the remaining 30%. It will limit the pace of restoration even more if smallmouth bass reproduction is low, even if it is low for reasons having nothing to do with alewives. This is not acceptable.
Alewives have countless benefits. They are food for the struggling groundfish stocks in the Gulf of Maine and countless other species of mammals and birds. They are also prized bait for Maine’s lobster industry, which is facing drastic reductions in available bait from other sources.
Alewives and smallmouth bass coexist happily throughout Maine, the rest of the US East Coast, and Canada. They can and will do so in the St. Croix.
Please act now and allow free access for alewives to the St. Croix River starting in 2011.
Sincerely,
Bill Houston