Coastal Conversations 5/24/19: Alewife restoration in the Bagaduce River Watershed

Producer/Host: Natalie Springuel
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

1) What are alewives, what is their ecology and cultural history?
2) How do alewives uses the Bagaduce region and have been their barriers to spawning here?
3) What is being done to help restore alewives in the regions, the important role of volunteers and how people can get involved.

Guests:
Bailey Bowden from the Town of Penobscot, fisheries activist and co-founder of the Bagaduce River Alewife Committee – a group of citizens from three river towns working to restore fish passage within their watershed.
Mike Thalhauser, Fisheries Biologist at the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries in Stonington – facilitating and supporting the Bagaduce River Alewife Committee as part of their efforts to support co-managed fisheries at the right scale.
Ciona Ulbrich, Senior Project Manager at Maine Coast Heritage Trust. In close partnership with Bailey, Mike and others, Ciona has served as point person in pulling together the funding, collaboration, engineering and construction of the set of fishway projects that together will restore passage throughout the Bagaduce River watershed.