An Overview Of Our Solution
Reconciling Scales to Preserve Maine’s Heritage Alewife Fisheries
Who is this solution impacting?
Ecosystem
Océans/Côtes
Community Type
Rural
Additional Information
- Population Impacted:
- Continent: Amérique du Nord
Problem
Describe the problem
The Alewife Harvesters of Maine formed to address concerns threatening to end heritage fisheries for sea-run herring along the Maine coastline, all complicated by the complex multi-scale nature of alewife ecology and governance. Fish spawn in freshwater under the jurisdiction of states, municipalities & even private landowners. But they migrate along the coast, over the continental shelf & across international boundaries where higher level management applies. AHM unites these divergent & otherwise disconnected scales from the top down and the bottom up. We educate municipal managers, harvesters & other stakeholders about large scale issues requiring higher level management, while educating managers at higher levels about the unique and effective community-based management taking place.
Biodiversity Impact
Alewives play vital ecosystem roles in freshwater, estuarine and marine ecosystems. Perhaps their most vital role is as forage for a wide range of fish, bird and mammal predators, including multiple species with high commercial (e.g., cod, tuna), recreational (striped bass, bluefish) and conservation (osprey, eagles, marine mammals) value. They also serve as vectors delivering carbon, energy and nutrients upstream against river flow, offsetting the next loss from lake to sea. Alewives also carry the larvae of certain freshwater mussel species on their gills, dispersing these at-risk mollusks. Therefore, ensuring that harvest is sustainable, and moreover that other watershed and oceanic impacts are addressed, is critical to preserving and enhancing the ecosystem function of these fish. Our first concern as an organization was bridging the gap between our harvesters and federal managers to ensure that needed fishery moratoria elsewhere along the coast were not needlessly applied to Maine, where management has higher standards and greater local control under strict State oversight. In doing so we agreed to not only further raise our standards for management, but also began creating a community of stewards secure in their fishing future and ready to step forward to confront fish passage, water quality, habitat protection and restoration, ocean bycatch, poaching and other issues of concern. Our next generation of work will tackle these pressing challenges and ensure that alewives continue to play their vital roles in the riverine, coastal and marine ecosystems.
Solution
Alewives are a single species across their range along the Atlantic coasts of the United States and Canada, but are comprised of hundreds or even thousands of distinct populations spawning in individual river systems. Typically, management of these spawning runs is either tragically absent, resulting in the extirpation of many runs and a recent call for listing the species as endangered, or at most is focused on individual rivers in isolation. However, population diversity is a critical component of biodiversity, especially when populations are linked as part of an interconnected metapopulation, as are alewives through inter-population straying. Failure to adequately manage across multiple populations threatens loss of population diversity. AHM serves as an umbrella across all 42 river systems with alewife runs in Maine (18 of which have active fisheries), and also works to restore runs where they have been lost. Our goal is to restore and preserve rich population diversity across Maine, and eventually along the whole coast. Furthermore, the important trophic role of alewives across aquatic ecosystems means that our efforts to increase abundance and population diversity will benefit a wide range of species, and therefore benefit broader biodiversity across the region.// The surface area benefited by our work can be quantified in many ways. Watersheds that support alewife runs in Maine cover more than two-thirds of Maineƒ??s 8,000,000 hectare area, or approximately 5.3 million hectares. The five largest rivers in the state have a combined length of nearly 700 miles, and the cumulative length of all rivers in the state is more than 1,000 miles. Alewives spawned in these rivers migrate along the 3,478-mile coastline of Maine, supporting fisheries and predators along the entire distance. These fish also range across the approximately 6 million hectare extent of the Gulf of Maine, supporting marine ecosystems and ocean fisheries. The benefits these fish provide to this vast area are dependent upon the stewardship we aim to build in rivers and along the coast.
Replicability
How many years has your solution been applied? 5 years // Have others reproduced your solution elsewhere? No // AHM relies on the volunteer efforts of its officers (all harvesters of or members of harvesting families), Board of Directors (a mix of harvesters and partners from academia, NGOs and other commercial fisheries), and members (also a mix of harvesters and other partners). Funding comes from membership dues, merchandise sales, and special events. We maintain a presence at the annual Maine Fishermen’s Forum and other key events to spread our message and recruit new members and partners. At present, we are in the midst of a visioning, organizational development, and strategic planning process that will determine how to ensure the viability of our current volunteer-based model, or chart a path toward creation of greater infrastructure. Key to this effort is the support, partnership and guidance of established and like-minded organizations such as the Penobscot East Resource Center and Maine Rivers.
Human Well Being and Livelihood Impact
Coastal regions of Maine have limited economic opportunities. Many peoples’ livelihoods are seasonal, and alewife fishing provides an additional source of seasonal income in this diversified economy. Indeed, commercial fishing of many different types once provided the foundation of the regional economy, but severe depletion of many species has diminished its importance. Lobster fishing is an important exception, supporting thousands of fishermen, their families and associated business along the coast. Bait supply has been a critical issue limiting the lobster fishery in recent years. Alewives provide an additional source of local, inexpensive, and highly effective bait for lobstermen. In the past, groundfish such as cod, haddock, halibut and flounders supported important commercial fisheries as well. These stocks have been drastically reduced, especially in Maine’s Downeast region (the most impoverished region in the state), and recovery of alewives might be a critical step toward their recovery. As commercial fishing has declined, tourism has grown in economic importance. Alewives can contribute to the continuing evolution of tourism in Maine by attracting sportfish such as striped bass, and providing bait to catch them, and by enhancing other wildlife viewing opportunities. In fact, alewife runs provide a wildlife viewing spectacle in their own right, and several places in Maine and elsewhere hold festivals to celebrate the annual return of these fish and fisheries.// Jurisdiction over harvest of alewives ultimately lies with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), a multi-state compact covering the whole of the U.S. East Coast. ASMFC sets minimum conservation measures, but allows each state certain latitude in tailor management. Similarly, the State of Maine sets certain standards within the bounds set by ASMFC, but then allows individual municipalities to petition the right to further tailor management to local needs and conditions within State regulations. This creates a necessarily complex hierarchy of management authority with each scale matched to a relevant ecological scale in the life of the fish. Additionally, federal agencies such as the Fish & Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service and regional fishery management councils are becoming increasingly involved in management of alewives in response to continued depletion in many places. And, multiple federal, state and municipal agencies manage non-fishing impacts along the coast, in rivers and in watersheds. A key motivation for the formation of AHM is to monitor, engage with and coordinate all of the many authorities from the vantage point of alewives, given that all have relevance to the species’ fate yet none address impacts comprehensively