The important message is that alewives tie our ocean, rivers and lakes together, providing vital nutrients and forage needed to make healthy watersheds. Imagine huge schools of alewives that swim in the Gulf of Maine, as far as 120 miles out. Then the adults move, in huge waves, back to shore and up into freshwater. Once they have spawned, adults then migrate back downstream, followed later in the summer and fall by the juveniles.

Between and within those various habitats, everything eats alewives: striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, tuna cod, haddock, halibut, American eel, rainbow- brown- and lake trout, landlocked salmon, smallmouth bass, pickerel, pike, white and yellow perch, seabirds, bald eagles, osprey, great blue herons, gulls, terns, cormorants, seals, whales, otter, mink, fox, raccoon, skunk, weasel, fisher, and turtles. In addition, lobstermen harvest alewives as bait for their spring lobster fishery.

These excerpts (above) are from a document by Naomi Schalit, Executive Director of Maine Rivers, Lois Winter, Conservation Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gulf of Maine Program, and Dr. Gail Wippelhauser, Marine Resources Scientist II, Maine Dept. of Marine Resources.

This tile was conceived by Audrey Leeds Miller of Maine Tile Connection in Boothbay and created by Kim Walker in 2010 as a 4X9 tile with a white background. The “cut-out” alewives are the second generation made for Fisherman’s Wharf Hotel in Boothbay Harbor and now available to everyone. These fish tiles are 4X9 and come in a variety of ways. They swim left or right (upstream or down stream) they can be cutouts or plant ons.

They can be all white or multicolored. All custom, handmade relief tiles with matching field tiles and complementary decorative tiles. This is is available for organizations that wish to fundraise. The Damariscotta Fish Ladder has received donations from the sale of this tile.