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Alewife (fish)

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For other uses of Alewife, seeAlewife.
"Gaspereau" redirects here. For the community, seeGaspereau, Nova Scotia.

Alewife
Scientific classificationEdit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Clupeiformes
Family: Alosidae
Genus: Alosa
Subgenus: Pomolobus
Species:
A. pseudoharengus
Binomial name
Alosa pseudoharengus
Synonyms[3]
  • Clupea vernalisMitchill, 1815
  • Clupea megalopsRafinesque, 1818
  • Clupea parvulaMitchill, 1814
  • Clupea pseudoharengusWilson, 1811
  • Clupea virescensDeKay, 1842
  • Meletta venosaValenciennes, 1847
  • Pomolobus pseudoharengus(Wilson, 1811)
School of alewife

Thealewife(Alosa pseudoharengus;pl.:alewives[4]) is ananadromousspecies ofherringfound inNorth America.It is one of the "typical" North Americanshads,attributed to thesubgenusPomolobusof the genusAlosa.[5]As an adult it is a marine species found in the northern West Atlantic Ocean, moving into estuaries before swimming upstream to breed infreshwaterhabitats, but some populations live entirely in fresh water. It is best known for its invasion of theGreat Lakesby using theWelland Canalto bypassNiagara Falls.Here, its population surged, peaking between the 1950s and 1980s to the detriment of many native species of fish. In an effort to control it biologically,Pacific salmonwere introduced, only partially successfully. As a marine fish, the alewife is a US National Marine Fisheries Service "Species of Concern".

Description[edit]

Alewife reach a maximumstandard length(SL) of about 40 centimetres (16 in), but have a typical SL of about 30 centimetres (12 in).[2]The front of the body is deep and larger than other fish found in the same waters.

Alewife have bronze-colored heads and a grey-blue[6]to greyish green[7]dorsum. Ahumeral spotis often present.[7]The tongue does not bear teeth.[8]Theperitoneumis light-colored with spots[6]to dusky-appearing,[7]an internal feature that distinguishes alewife fromblueback herring(Alosa aestivalis), which have a dark peritoneum.[6]Theotolithis shaped like a letter "L", unlike its hooked shape inA. aestivalis.[9]Additionally, the eye is larger than that ofA. aestivalis;[8]the width of the eye often exceeds the length of the snout inA. pseudoharengus.[7]

Etymology and folklore[edit]

Its common name is said to come from comparison with a corpulent female tavernkeeper ( "ale-wife" ),[10]or, alternatively, from the wordaloofe,[11][12]possibly ofNative American origin,[13]that was used to describe this fish in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

In southwesternNova Scotia,alewife are referred to as kiacks (or kyacks).[14]InAtlantic Canadait is known as the gaspereau, from theAcadian Frenchwordgasparot,first mentioned byNicolas Denys.William Francis Ganong,New Brunswick biologist and historian, wrote:

Gaspereau, or Gasparot. Name of a common salt-water fish of Acadia (also called alewife), first used, so far as I can find, by Denys in 1672. Nowhere can I find any clue to its origin. It seems not to be Indian.[15]

Acadians named two rivers after the fish, theGaspereau Riverin Nova Scotia and the Gaspereau River inNew Brunswick.

Bothanadromousand landlocked forms occur. The landlocked form is also called a sawbelly or mooneye (although this latter name is more commonly applied toHiodonspp.) Adult alewife are caught during their spring spawning migration upstream by being scooped out of shallow, constricted areas using largedip nets.They are the preferred bait for the spring lobster fishery in Maine,[16]and are eaten by humans, usually smoked.

In the North American Great Lakes[edit]

Alewife are known for their invasion of theGreat Lakesby using theWelland Canalto bypassNiagara Falls.Although theUnited States Department of Agriculturesuggests they may be native toLake Ontario,[17]alewife colonized the other Great Lakes and became abundant mostly inLake HuronandLake Michigan.It appears that they had spread fromLake Erieto other Great Lakes by theDetroit RiverandLake St. Clair.[17]They reached their peak abundance from the 1950s through the 1980s. Alewife grew in number unchecked because the lakes lacked a top predator (lake troutwere essentially wiped out around the same time byoverfishingand the invasion of thesea lamprey)[18]

For a time, alewife, which often exhibit seasonal die-offs, washed up inwindrowson the shorelines of the Great Lakes. Various species ofPacific salmon(firstcoho,and later theChinook salmon) were introduced aspredators.Though marginally successful, this led to the development of a salmon/alewife fishery popular with manysport anglers.[citation needed]

In spite of such biological control methods, alewife remain implicated in the decline of many native Great Lakes species. It is also a common predator of numerous native and non-native zooplankton taxa (e.g.Bythotrephes longimanus,[19]Leptodiaptomus ashlandi,[citation needed]Limnocalanusspp.,[20]Leptodiaptomus minutus,[citation needed]Leptodiaptomus sicilis,[citation needed]andLeptodora kindtii[21]). Wells (1970) found that increases in population of alewife in the Great Lakes between 1954 and 1966 were associated with population declines in certain larger species of zooplankton, while an alewife die-off in 1967 was temporally related to population rebound in most of those species.[21]

Conservation[edit]

Alewife populations have seen big declines throughout much of theirrange.Several threats have most likely contributed to their decline, including loss ofhabitatdue to decreased access to spawning areas from the construction of dams and other impediments to migration, habitat degradation, fishing, and increased predation due to recovering striped bass populations.

In response to the declining population trend for alewives, the states of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Virginia, and North Carolina have instituted moratoria on taking and possession.

In eastern Massachusetts, Alewife Brook flows through Arlington, Cambridge, and Somerville to theMystic River.The brook gives its name to theAlewife Brook Parkwayand theAlewife Brook Reservation.TheRed Line (MBTA)of Boston's T ends at theAlewife station,so the name of this fish adorns the front of every northbound Red Line train. An extensive habitat restoration and education project, combined with a fish ladder with monitoring cameras, is yielding increasing numbers of alewife back in the improving Mystic River watershed.[22]

The alewife is a US National Marine Fisheries Service Species of Concern,[23]about which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, has some concerns regarding status and threats, but for which insufficient information is available to indicate a need to list the species under the USEndangered Species Act.

References[edit]

  1. ^NatureServe (2013)."Alosa pseudoharengus".IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.2013:e.T201948A18235694.doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2013-1.RLTS.T201948A18235694.en.Retrieved3 October2022.
  2. ^abFroese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.) (2006)."Alosa pseudoharengus"inFishBase.April 2006 version.
  3. ^"Alosa pseudoharengus(Wilson, 1811) ".Global Biodiversity Information Facility.Retrieved21 February2023.
  4. ^"alewife".Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary.Retrieved2023-10-27.
  5. ^Faria, R.; Weiss, S. & Alexandrino, P.(2006): A molecular phylogenetic perspective on the evolutionary history ofAlosaspp. (Clupeidae).Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution40(1): 298–304.doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2006.02.008(HTML abstract)
  6. ^abc"Alewife".Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.2023.Retrieved11 January2023.
  7. ^abcd"Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) - Native ".Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection.2023 [Adapted fromA Pictorial Guide to Freshwater Fishes of Connecticut(R.P. Jacobs & E.B. O'Donnell, 2009)].Retrieved11 January2023.
  8. ^abFuller, P.; Maynard, E.; Raikow, D.; Larson, J.; Fusaro, A.; Neilson, M.; Bartos, A. (5 July 2022) [Peer reviewed 4 August 2021]."Alosa pseudoharengus(Wilson, 1811) ".Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database.Gainesville, FL:U.S. Geological Survey.Retrieved11 January2023.
  9. ^Dennis, Claire (2002). Schulz, Kimberly (ed.)."Alosa aestivalis".Animal Diversity Web.Retrieved21 February2023.
  10. ^Oxford English Dictionary,Second Edition
  11. ^Winthorp (1678)."The Description, Culture, and Use of Maiz".Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.12(142): 1065–1069.Retrieved10 January2023– viaBiodiversity Heritage Library.
  12. ^Winthorp (1739)."The Culture of Maize".In Baddam (ed.).Memoirs of the Royal Society; Being a New Abridgment of the Philosophical Transactions.Vol. 2.London.pp. 129–133.hdl:2027/nyp.33433009958483.Retrieved10 January2023– viaHathiTrust.
  13. ^Bartlett, John Russell (1848)."Alewife".Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States.New York:Bartlett and Welford.p. 6.ISBN9781404705005.Retrieved10 January2023– viaGoogle Books.
  14. ^"Nova Scotia Fisheries: Alewife".Archived fromthe originalon August 24, 2007.
  15. ^Ganong, W. F.(1910)."The Identity of the Animals and Plants Mentioned by the Early Voyagers to Eastern Canada and Newfoundland".Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada.III.Royal Society of Canada: 218.OL7061668M.RetrievedJune 27,2013.
  16. ^Maine Dept of Marine Resources."Maine River Herring Fact Sheet".Archived fromthe originalon 2011-09-07.
  17. ^ab"Alewife".National Invasive Species Information Center.United States Department of Agriculture.RetrievedOctober 27,2023.
  18. ^"Sanctuaries for lake trout in the Great Lakes | U.S. Geological Survey".
  19. ^Storch, Adam J.; Schulz, Kimberly L.; Cáceres, Carla E.; Smyntek, Peter M.; Dettmers, John M.; Teece, Mark A. (2007). "Consumption of two exotic zooplankton by alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) in three Laurentian Great Lakes ".Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.64(10): 1314–1328.doi:10.1139/f07-096.
  20. ^Riha, Milan; Walsh, Maureen G.; Connerton, Michael J.; Holden, Jeremy; Weidel, Brian C.; Sullivan, Patrick J.; Holda, Toby J.; Rudstam, Lars G. (2017)."Vertical distribution of alewife in the Lake Ontario offshore: Implications for resource use".Journal of Great Lakes Research.43(5): 823–837.Bibcode:2017JGLR...43..823R.doi:10.1016/j.jglr.2017.07.007.
  21. ^abWells, LaRue (1970)."Effects of Alewife Predation on Zooplankton in Lake Michigan".Limnology and Oceanography.15(4): 556–565.doi:10.4319/lo.1970.15.4.0556.
  22. ^Mystic River Herring Monitoring Project,mysticriver.org. Accessed September 4, 2022.
  23. ^Fisheries, NOAA (2021-08-18)."Endangered Species Conservation | NOAA Fisheries".NOAA.Retrieved2021-09-18.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAlosa pseudoharengus.
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