A beautiful day was highlighted by the amazing abundance of alewives migrating to Damariscotta Lake.  Our goal was to witness a healthy run and get a sense of just how many fish congregate during the annual migration up freshwater streams all over Maine in their instinctual drive to spawn. 

Fish are harvested here during the week.  Some of our lobstermen make the trip over here to purchase their  bait.

 

We also visited the Warren Fish Trap where St. George River alewives are harvested at the head of the tide in Warren. Harvest rights were given to towns at the head of the tide, and Warren was granted this right in 1802 by the state of Massachusetts.  It was a big surprise to see a striped bass in the trap with the alewives!

“I thought the fish were cool.   I was surprised to see so many.You couldn’t even see the bottom because it was all fish, all going different directions.”  Cam

“This morning we went to the fish ladder and the fish trap. The fish ladder was very interesting and not what I expected. I have never seen that many fish in one place. It looked like they were going to fall out of the water. There were so many. I noticed that the fish made the water black. You could only see the individual fish when you got up close, but when you were far away the water was just dark. There were many more fish than I expected and they were much more dense than I thought they would be. I thought it was very interesting how they were swimming. They would randomly stop and leave the group and then join again in a different spot. It looked like they were playing tag. And seeing this helped me understand how the fish travel better. I really enjoyed this trip and I hope I will get to go here again.”  Madelyn“There were definitely more fish than I expected…When we walked the water was filled with alewives. I found how many there are interesting. I learned how they actually travel together upstream and how it actually works.” Violet

“We went to the Damariscotta fish ladder and the Warren fish trap. The alewives at the fish ladder that we saw were very cool and it was super interesting the way they swam in their school. The alewives at the fish trap were pretty awesome. I noticed that from the top and when alewives are swimming they look like little baby sharks. I have been to the fish ladder before so I kind of knew how many fish were going to be there but there was definitely more than I expected.  I understand how the alewives travel and move upstream better after this experience. I learned that a lot of alewives die at the fish ladder but yet there are still so many and I didn’t know that before this field trip.” Karly“I thought the fish in Damariscotta and Warren were very cool and persistent. I have never been there before so I didn’t really know what to expect. Although I was kind of expecting some fish to be going under the big bridge. I wondered a few things about the fish. I wondered if the fish knew they could either go to get harvested or to their spawning ground. I also wondered if they felt sad when they swam past the dead alewives. Something else I found interesting was the diversity of wildlife that was there. There were seagulls, sunfish, periwinkles, bald eagles, elvers, and of course alewives. This experience has helped me to better understand why people were so sad when our run disappeared. It also makes me think hard about what we could or could have done to fix our run.”  Trinity

We were thrilled to share our progress with parents and community members at the Granite Gallery.  Our thanks to owners Alexa and Jerry Cunningham who opened their space for us to invite family, friends and community members to see our project.

What could be better than a welcome into the gallery, moving along our display of beautiful art, taking in their arrangement swimming upstream until you were brought to a view out the window of Ripley Creek at high tide where our alewives once returned in abundance each spring?

Students came down in two groups to help arrange the display and get a sense of the evening opening.

Families, friends and community members stopped by to see, learn and show their support of our students and their undertaking for which we are grateful. For one evening, the alewives made a run up Ripley Creek once more!

 

 

Students have completed our history component and are now painting in a multi-step process of acrylic metallic paint washes with attention to characteristic alewife traits that bring an amazing realism of shiny fresh, sea run fish.  Their transformation was especially dramatic with the final wash of “flash” that gave a beautiful iridescent sparkle of life to each sculpted fish.  

Our fish are being fired and as batches come out of the kiln they are being sealed with a coat of acrylic gesso! In between creating the fish and preparing them for final painting is our time to dig into the history of the run:  What was it like in our community when the fish came in?  Why did we lose our run?  What has been done to try and restore them?

The research of 8th grade alumni in the form of text, audio and video files is now becoming brief narratives within a laser-cut alewife silhouette that will be displayed near our sculpted alewives, artfully arranged as if they were swimming up Ripley Creek once more.  As one reads the texts, a story emerges that shares the local history of the alewives and answers our essential questions.

To distill an abundance of information into such brevity while keeping essential details is a very challenging task!  Students usually opted to work in pairs to create a draft, and then passed the draft along for “warm” and “cool” feedback. Edits and more edits were made with the ideal of using very few characters to create easy reading and provide impactful meaning.

Even this prototype laser-cut narrative has too much text!!  An edit is underway!

Next, we are eager to get under way painting our fish to bring them to life and prepare for a preview of our project installation at the Granite Gallery. Our many thanks to Granite Gallery owners Alexa and Jerry Cunningham!  The gallery preview will be held Friday, May 20th, from 5-7 pm. Come see and support this project of our students that has challenged them to use art as a connection to our natural resources, local history and stewardship and why we should remember the alewives, always!