Hi,
Muffy asked me to address the situation you are having in the lake.
My name is Sid, and I am an Alewife.
Some of you have expressed concern that some of my friends and relatives are washing up on your beach, and that worries you.
Let me tell you a little about myself, and the others.
Alewives are pretty interesting individuals, even though we all look exactly alike.
I was born (hatched out) in Lake Sebasticook about 4 years ago, and I hung around for the summer before heading to the ocean for a few years to mature.
The fact that I survived that first summer of bass, turtles, otters and birds of prey is a testament to my stealthy yet adventurous spirit.
Once I arrive In the ocean, I eat zooplankton (just like I do in Lake Sebasticook while I am there), as well as insect larvae, small crustaceans and small fish.
After 3 or 4 years, male Alewives like myself are mature enough to start being interested in girl Alewives (wink, wink), which mature around the same age.
Alewives are Anadromous fish, meaning we migrate from the ocean back to freshwater – our natal lake – to spawn.
We do not eat during our migration, and it is a long, arduous trip to the lake of our birth, navigating steep fish ladders, shallow streams and dams.
We are exhausted and hungry by the time we arrive in the beautiful waters of Lake Sebasticook, arriving here by our sense of SMELL, by the way.
After a successful spawn – I will spare you the details, but there is a full disclosure by consenting adult Alewives on the Maine.gov website – we do one of two things:
1. We hang around for a few days and gorge ourselves on lake delicacies, then head back to the ocean. Hence, the rationale for keeping the fish ladder open all summer.
2. We die.
The reason my friends and relatives have died in such great numbers the last two weeks after spawning (What a way to go, though!!!), is due to the exceptionally warm air temperatures last week (90 F is too hot for us), the warmer-than-normal water temperatures in the shallows (where we spawn), which causes a decreased level of dissolved oxygen (you try having sex without breathing ……not so much fun, my friend), we are exhausted and starving, and some of us are simply OLD!!
Those of us 3-5 year old survivors will head back to the ocean in another week or so, with plans to return to Lake Sebasticook for another few spawns ( as long as we survive the bait nets for the lobster fishermen, the seals, the sharks, etc), before we bite the big one, and head off to Alewife heaven, HOPEFULLY after becoming a meal for a turtle, skunk, raccoon, bass, osprey, eagle, fox, otter or fisher, and not washing up on your beach.
That was run-on sentence, but I am an Alewife, not an English teacher.
Please know that as gross as we are when we float up on your shoreline, we are influencing nutrient balance and doing our part to contribute to the CLEAR water you have in Sebasticook Lake.
Happy Summer!
Sid
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