Monitoring the alewife comeback (Maine)

http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/monitoring-the-alewife-comeback_2011-05-20.html

Nate Gray looked over at the five small monitors at Benton Falls Dam, each showing live underwater footage of alewives.

The fish had just been lifted into a sophisticated man-made channel late Thursday morning. Next they were to be counted and sent safely to the other side of the dam.

Gray, a scientist with the Maine Department of Marine Resources, said the high-tech monitoring system is showing a remarkable comeback for alewives: given the opportunity, these fish can once again flourish in the Sebasticook River.

And that turnaround -- which is being closely watched by Gray and his team of state scientists -- is pointing to a teachable moment, Gray said.

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The number of diadromous fish (alewife, shad, blue-back herring, eels, stripers) ascending the Kennebec today because of dam removals is astounding...