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The pros and cons of helping fish swim upstream

June 01, 2007 - Most people at Wednesday's public meeting on the proposed fishway at the Webber Pond outlet dam support the idea.

The straw poll near the end of the discussion showed more than half the two dozen residents present in favor. Some did not vote, and one or two hands were tentatively raised in opposition to adding a fish ladder.

The goal is to allow alewives, small fish harvested for lobster bait, to migrate from the ocean up the Kennebec River and into Webber and associated ponds to spawn.

The major concerns discussed where safety for people who swim above the dam, vandalism, cost, and fear of acquiring unwelcome fish species such as pike and carp.

The area above the dam has been a traditional swimming area for many years, in spite of neighbors complaints about late-night parties and risk. People have been swept through the dam and this spring, the Webber Pond Association that owns the damn closed the swimming area, citing safety concerns.

Speakers at the meeting indicated that closure has been ignored.

Because the area has been vandalized, people also doubted the fishway would be left alone.

Nate Gray of the state Department of Marine Resources said the preferred design, a so-called Alaska Steep Pass fish ladder, would be narrow enough so that people could not fall into it.

A grating or racks would keep swimmers and floating debris out of the top.

He suggested a buoyed boom above the dam as a warning to swimmers.

One reason the Steep Pass is preferred is it's $200,000 cost, making it the cheapest of three options presented at the meeting. Gray said the Marine Resources Department is seeking grants to fund construction and would pay for maintenance.

The fish ladder would be open to let fish into Weber Pond only when an operator is there to check each fish to make sure no invasive species get in. Normally, Gray said, the town, which controls alewife fishing rights, bids out the fishery, and the winning bidder would also operate the fishway.

Alewives have been stocked in Webber Pond since 1997, trucked in or netted and lifted over the dam.

Frank Richards, president of the Webber Pond Association, told the audience that association members almost unanimously support letting them make their own way in over a fish way.

Ten years experience has shown that sea-run alewives leave the pond every fall and do not become a year-round problem, as landlocked alewives have been in parts of Vermont and New York, he said.


This article appeared in its original form in the Kennebec Journal June 1, 2007.


Lakes: Webber Pond
Regions: Belgrade


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