BATH — The Winnegance River Herring Commission is seeking donations to repair the fishway in Winnegance Lake, a source of fresh bait for local fishermen and research site for the state.
The commission, made up of representatives from Bath, Phippsburg and West Bath, found erosion under the concrete fishway, also known as a fish ladder. Repairs need to be done as soon as possible, said David Hennessey, commission chair, with an estimated $23,400 pricetag.
Without the repairs, the fishway could close, Hennessey said, cutting off Winnegance Lake as a resource for river herring to spawn.
River herring, a collective term for alewives and blueback herring, spend the majority of their lives in the ocean but migrate to freshwater, like Winnegance Lake, to spawn. The fishway is a series of pools that fish can use to navigate obstacles and move from the Kennebec River to the lake.
“In the case of Winnegance Lake, there is a dam that keeps fish from migrating into the lake naturally,” said Mike Brown, a member of the Maine Department of Marine Resources’ sea run fisheries and habitat division. “Each pool has a slight jump that the fish are able to negotiate. By swimming from pool to pool the fish are able to overcome the height between the lake and the river.”
Some river herring are harvested from Winnegance Lake and sold to around 10 to 15 local fishermen for bait in April and May “when fresh bait is hard to come by,” said Hennessey.
Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association said some fishermen and lobstermen will get up early to be first in line to buy local river herring.
“When you’re getting your bait from far away, it could be frozen or salted,” said Martens. “Fishermen who use the fresh river herring catch more lobster and do better than their counterparts.”
Martens said local river herring are also preferred by fishermen because buying local bait supports the local economy and is “better for the environment because it has a smaller carbon footprint.”
Beyond providing bait for local fishermen, Brown said the fish run at Winnegance Lake is one of 15 monitored by the state to gather biological data and assess the health of river herring populations.
“These data include the species, age, numbers and spawning rates of fish returning to the coast of Maine to spawn and provides information on population changes from year to year,” said Brown. “These data are used at the local, state and federal level to develop a sustainable management plan for the commercial fishery at Winnegance and contribute to a better understanding of river herring coastwide.”
Brown wasn’t able to say how many fish use the fishway each year, but said the lake “was one of the most productive spawning locations in Maine.”
“The lake remains productive and provides the potential to produce higher than average numbers of returns for a Maine lake,” he said.
Martens said fish runs — when river herring move to freshwater — also have a cultural significance to Maine fishermen across the state.
“In the spring everyone has their river herring runs and it’s a time when a lot of fishermen get to be together to talk, and share stories or news,” said Martens. “It’s one of those things that we don’t think about, but it’s pretty special. … Any fishway we can restore and protect, we should be doing it, and not just because of the bait it provides to local fishermen.”
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