From May 28-30, hundreds of guests and locals enjoyed the Fourth Annual Fish Ladder Restoration Festival held at Damariscotta Mills. Festival coordinator Deb Wilson watched over the newly renovated ladder pools, fielded questions, coordinating signage concerns on her cell phone, and shared her excitement over the promising future of the 204-year-old fish ladder.
“It’s a wonderful day because the fish cooperated,” she said.
From the perspective of the fish, water flow is what matters. “The primary issue for many years was that the old ladder was hard to access from a repair standpoint, and the pools were leaking. Water flow was constricted and the alewives were trying to find a way to the lake, getting stuck between the stones,” said Wilson.
Restoration of the fish ladder became critical to the health of the Damariscotta River alewife stocks. Alewives are an important part of the food chain and they contribute to the health of the lakes and streams where the fish spawn. The Towns of Newcastle and Nobleboro have harvested alewives since the 1700s and they carefully monitor the Damariscotta River alewife stock. All funds received for harvested alewives now pay to maintain and restore the fish ladder and harvesting area.
When a fishery moratorium went into effect, Frank Waltz maintained what was, at that time, an undervalued piece of infrastructure. Unfortunately, the constrictive effect of the decreased water flow continued to make progress very difficult for the fish. Newcastle and Nobleboro joined to hire an engineer from the United States Department of Fisheries and Wildlife who redesigned the ladder for optimal efficiency.
The success is apparent in the widened passageway for the annual return of the Alewives to their breeding grounds. Local marine biologist David Gale said, “The water flow is now highly efficient.”
Some old-timers missed the old ladder. One guest from Philadelphia was nostalgic. “I kind of wish they hadn’t messed around with it,” he said.
“As we started repairing it, the walls were collapsing,” Wilson said. “The fish use the current to direct them and now, it seems, they have really taken to it, like fish to water.”
Nathan and Sam Dudek from Gray came to watch with their dad, Jonathan and had walked all the way from Damariscotta.”They’re interesting because they swim in big groups,” said Nathan aged 8, while Sam, 5, was intrigued by the way they “always have to fight to get upstream.”
As of press timer about 250 of the 300 raffle tickets were sold for the big $10,000 grand prize, proceeds of which support will the reconstruction.
Mary Jane Buchan was on hand selling smoked alewives, considered a delicacy, along with numerous other food vendors. Kids of all ages participated in games, puppet shows, and enjoyed the music provided by different groups through the three day ‘fish festival.’
Joy Knowlton, who manned a tee shirt booth at the top of the ladder, summed it up. “The crowd is very enthusiastic,” she said. “This three-day event allows many volunteers to help which means we add more support each year and we develop even greater resources. Alewives are very important to the marine environment. Everything revolves around the circle of life.”