anchovy, Engraulis mordax, and other fishes due to 

 handling and preservation. Fish. Bull., U.S. 78:685- 

 692. 



Robert E. Schlotterbeck 

 David W. Connally 



MBC Applied Environmental Sciences 

 947 Newhall Street 

 Costa Mesa, CA 92627 



cated approximately 29 km from the mouth of 

 the river at the head of tide (Fig. 1). The river 

 terminates at Great Salt Bay where a small out- 

 flow stream connects it with Damariscotta Lake. 

 Alewives are harvested with traps consisting 

 of moveable metal bins that are set into the 

 stream. Alewives swim into these bins which are 

 then hoisted out of the water and the fish are 

 dumped into a holding trough. The alewives that 

 escape capture may pass through a fishway and 



69 40 



69°25 



DECREASE IN LENGTH AT 



PREDOMINANT AGES DURING 



A SPAWNING MIGRATION OF THE 



ALEWIFE, ALOSA PSEUDOHARENGUS' 



The spawning migration of the anadromous ale- 

 wife, Alosa pseudoharengus, has been charac- 

 terized by a decreasing trend in size and age. 

 Cooper (1961) reported a trend in decreasing size 

 in Pausacaco Pond, R.I., and Kissil (1974) found 

 this one year in a 2-yr study at Bride Lake, Conn. 

 A trend of decreasing size and age composition 

 was also found in the Damariscotta River, Maine, 

 alewife migration for the years 1977 through 

 1979 (Libby 1981). 



Since 1977, data have been collected for 

 length, weight, sex, age, and daily catch from the 

 Damariscotta River commercial fishery. Analy- 

 sis resulted in length-weight relationships, 

 length, sex and age compositions, and an overall 

 view of the annual stock changes. Further analy- 

 sis of the collected data revealed that as age of the 

 alewives decreased during migration, lengths at 

 age also decreased with time. The analysis was 

 applied only to 1979 and 1980 because of insuffi- 

 cient data in the other years. 



The intent of this paper is to show the analysis 

 and explain in greater detail this trend in de- 

 creasing length at age of an alewife migration. 



The Study Area 

 The Damariscotta River alewife fishery is lo- 



■This study was conducted in cooperation with the U.S. De- 

 partment of Commerce, National Marine Fisheries Service, 

 under Public Law 89-304, as amended, Commercial Fisheries 

 Research and Development Act, Projects AFC-21-1 and AFC- 

 22-2. 



44"00 



_ 44 00 



43°50' - 



- 43 50 



Figure 1.— Damariscotta River and site of the commercial 

 alewife fishery. 



902 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 80. NO. 4, 1982. 



