Box Mill Dam News Today

The last time alewives made the 70-mile journey from the ocean to China Lake in central Maine, the American Revolution had just come to an end in 1783. Since then, the sea run fish, also known as river herring, have been blocked from their historic spawning grounds by a series of dams. But this week, something remarkable happened: the fish returned.

The last time alewives made the 70-mile journey from the ocean to China Lake in central Maine, the American Revolution had just come to an end in 1783. Since then, the sea run fish, also known as river herring, have been blocked from their historic spawning grounds by a series of dams. But this week, something remarkable happened: the fish returned.

Yarmouth-based Maine Rivers has completed a fishway at the Outlet Dam on China Lake, clearing the final obstacle to alewife migration from the ocean to the lake.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced cancellation of festival for second consecutive year, the yearly alewife migration continues in big numbers in the Sebasticook River.

Yarmouth-based Maine Rivers has completed a fishway at the Outlet Dam on China Lake, clearing the final obstacle to alewife migration from the ocean to the lake.

Fishway is almost complete at the Box Mill Dam in Vassalboro, bringing connection between Outlet Stream and Sebasticook River closer.