A free talk by Karen Wilson on Zoom 6 p.m. June 4 will provide an opportunity to learn more about alewives, their population and migration and their interactions with other species in the Gulf of Maine. Registration for the link can be found at https://www.kennebecestuary.org/upcoming-events/2020alewife-webinar or the Kennebec Estuary Land Trust Facebook page.

Wilson is an associate research faculty with the University of Southern Maine’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy. She is working on a project to study juvenile river herring and their habitat in the Penobscot and has studied how alewives create economic and ecologic connections between Maine’s lakes and rivers and the Gulf of Maine.

Each spring, millions of alewives migrate up Maine’s rivers and streams to spawn and in the summer their millions of offspring migrate back to the sea. Since 2012, volunteers have counted fish at the Nequasset Fish Ladder during the annual alewife run. Volunteers sign-up for two-hour shifts between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., and the results are then used to estimate the total number of fish that travel to Nequasset Lake each year. It takes most alewives about four years to grow to adults and then return to the lake to spawn. The results from these volunteer efforts are evidence of that 4-year cycle in the fish count numbers.

The webinar registration will provide a link to the free conference on Zoom. For more information or to sign-up, visit  kennebecestuary.org or call (207) 442-8400.