Removal of the dam created unrestricted access to 18 miles of habitat between Augusta and Waterville for 10 species of migratory fish. A 52-inch striped bass was reported caught near the Sidney boat launch last week, about eight miles above Augusta. Some of the American shad moving up the river have been trapped by biologists to provide hatchery broodstock. The fish have produced some 440,000 eggs, which will be used for stocking programs. In April, an estimated 2 million alewives ran up the river to the Fort Halifax dam at the mouth of the Sebasticook River in Winslow.
Alewives are an important food for larger game fish.
The Department of Marine Resources captured 138,000 of the fish to stock in the upper Kennebec and several other rivers. But the run was so big that local residents had to pitch in and help. They formed a line on ledges just below the Fort Halifax dam and passed buckets full of alewives over the dam. Dozens of local children pitched in, scooping up alewives by hand as they flopped around in shallow water among the ledges. That was something they had never seen in their lives.