Fish numbers still rising on the Kennebec

By DAVE SHERWOOD
Outdoors writer

Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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	Staff photo by Dave Sherwood enlarge REPRODUCING: Small striped bass like this one are thriving in the Kennebec River. Most migrate north to the river from the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and Virginia. Biologists document a small amount of reproduction in the Kennebec each year. Understanding the extent of this reproduction, and the potential for increasing it, is one of the many goals of the survey.
	Staff photo by Dave Sherwood enlarge FISH NUMBERS: Chris Yoder, right, of the Midwest Biodiversity Institute records fish species from the Kennebec. Samples were taken above and below the Donald V. Carter Memorial Bridge in Waterville. Assisting Yoder are his son, Kyle, center, and Bryan Apell, left.
	Staff photo by Dave Sherwood enlarge SHOCK ATTACK: The electroshocking boat used by biologists is capable of safely stunning fish up to 12 feet below the surface. This allows them access to some of the deeper holes in the river, where the bigger fish, like striped bass, sturgeon and carp, reside.

When the striped bass, alewives, sturgeon and shad first swarmed the Kennebec River above the former Edwards Dam site in Augusta, it was a homecoming unlike any ever experienced in the United States.

The dam, removed from the river's head of tide in 1999, re- introduced 12 species of fish to 17 miles of historic habitat. It would be the first time these fish had swum north of Augusta in 162 years.

"The removal of a dam that affects a 17-mile stretch of river hasn't happened on a clean, large river in the eastern United States ever before, to my knowledge," said Brandon Kulik, a biologist for Kleinschmidt Associates, an energy and water resource consulting group based in Pittsfield.

Now, six years later, "it's time to ask the fish what they think about all of this," Kulik said.

Kulik and Kleinschmidt are working with biologist Chris Yoder, of the Midwest Biodiversity Institute, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The results will be shared with the entire conservation community.

"This is a Lewis and Clark kind of opportunity. We’re looking at something that no one really has before," Kulik said. To date, the dam removal appears to be a success.

Alewives have returned in untold millions, shad once again spawn in the free-flowing reaches near Waterville, and striped bass provide a sport fishing opportunity that hasn't existed in central Maine for more than 150 years.

The people of inland Maine, 60 miles or more from the coast, are once again tied to the sea, both in ecology and in economy. Lobstermen from as far as Port Clyde arrive on the banks of the Sebasticook in Winslow to harvest alewives for use as bait.

Fish Species Sampled

Native Freshwater Species Brook trout White sucker Fallfish Common shiner Lake chub Blacknose dace Golden shiner Burbot Banded killifish Brown bullhead Redbreast sunfish Pumpkinseed Yellow perch Slimy sculpin Native Anadramous (swim from salt water to fresh water to spawn) Sea lamprey Atlantic sturgeon Shortnose sturgeon Alewife Blueback herring American shad Atlantic salmon White perch Striped bass Native Catadramous (swim from fresh water to salt water to spawn) American eel Native Tidal Species Mummichog Fourspine stickleback Ninespine stickleback Northern silverside Non-native Species Landlocked salmon Brown trout Rainbow trout Splake Spottail shiner Smallmouth bass Largemouth bass Chain pickerel White catfish Black crappie Gizzard shad Northern pike Common carp Bluegill Green sunfish Rudd

Striper fishermen line the banks of the river in Waterville for a shot at hooking a fish that lives most of its life at sea, and that outweighs most brown trout or smallmouth bass by a factor of 10.

But when is the river truly restored?

THE SURVEY

Monitoring the Kennebec's fish population is one way to answer that question, said biologist Yoder, who has worked on every Kennebec River fish survey since they began in 2002.

During the surveys, fish are electro-shocked — a method used by biologists to temporarily stun fish without hurting them. The fish are netted, measured and weighed, then released alive.

Yoder said the surveys are beginning to show that anadramous fish — fish that live in the ocean, but return to spawn in freshwater rivers — have returned in good numbers to the Kennebec above Augusta.

"The total weight of fish that we sample below Lockwood Dam in Waterville is at least 10 times as much as it is above," he said. Dam impoundments, such as the one that once existed above Edwards Dam, have a "simplifying" effect on ecosystems, Yoder said. Fewer fish are the result. They also present a roadblock for anadramous fish, a critical component of the river's ecosystem. Last Wednesday, the survey crew sampled thousands of fish between Waterville and Sidney.

Some, like eels and white suckers — native, and very common species in the river, are weighed in bulk. Others, like non-native crappie, carp, or smallmouth bass, are each measured and weighed, to give biologists a better idea of their effect on river ecology.

The surveys, mandated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, seek to develop an index that will help monitor the condition of the Kennebec. The health of fish populations will reflect the health of the river, Yoder said.

Yoder and Kleinschmidt also have surveyed other rivers in Maine — the Penobscot, the Androscoggin, the St. John, the Aroostook, the St. Croix — and will use that data for comparison.

"The Kennebec has the most marine biomass of any of the rivers we survey," Yoder said. "The lower Penobscot doesn't have anywhere near the number of marine nutrients." He said he sees twice as many fish species on the Kennebec as he does in comparable sections of the Penobscot, due partly to the removal of Edwards Dam and the return of anadramous fish species. Scientifically, these comparisons allow biologists to gauge progress in restoring the river.

So far, the outlook for the Kennebec is optimistic. Nearly every site sampled by Yoder and his crew between Waterville and Augusta turned up an abundance of juvenile blueback herring, shad and alewives, as well as eels and 8- to 16-inch striped bass — all fish that spend at least part of their lives in the ocean. Anadramous fish have returned, and the juveniles are proof that they are spawning successfully.

But how much is enough?

RESTORATION COMPLEX

Everyone — Kulik, Yoder, and biologists from the state Department of Marine Resources — agree the river has come a long way since the 1960s.

"The river was a sewer," said Tom Squiers, a Marine Resources biologist who began working on the Kennebec in the early 1970s.

Since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, industries and towns have been forced to treat their waste before discharging it into the rivers. In just 20 years, the water quality made a miraculous recovery.

Fish populations have rebounded. Recent fish surveys have proved that.

"Years ago the urbanized portions of these rivers were far too polluted for anyone to seriously consider investigating these working river fish communities," Kulik said.

Now, people are talking about when restoration will be complete.

"The river will be restored when the fisheries are sustainable, without us having to do anything but minimal amounts of maintenance," said Kulik. That, he said, is the biological answer. Although progress has been made, he said, there is still much to be done.

For instance, dams above Waterville block upriver passage for anadramous fish. Atlantic salmon have all but disappeared from the ecosystem. Water temperatures are rising. Non-native fish species — carp, crappie, gizzard shad, brown trout, large- and smallmouth bass — make up a significant portion of the river's fish biomass, or total weight. Alewives still require the help of man for transport around dams.

Nate Gray, the Department of Marine Resources biologist who leads the Kennebec River Restoration Program, agrees.

"There are target numbers for the runs of alewives, shad and Atlantic salmon, but that's the political biology of it," said Gray.

"The question can really only be answered by the people of the state — their desire to have clean water and healthy ecosystems."

"You can never stop trying to make things better," he said.

Dave Sherwood — 621-5648
dsherwood@centralmaine.com