From A Survey of Former Shad Streams in Maine By Clyde Taylor, Fishery Biologist, 1951
Penobscot River
Since the original dams were built to provide power for saw-mills, there is a possibility sawdust pollution may have contributed to the decline. The available evidence suggests, however, that the decline in numbers was immediately associated with construction of dams and was not caused by the accumulative effects of pollution.
The process began with the damming of the tributaries. The Segeundedunk was dammed in April 1771 (Ford, l882, p. 522). A map of Bangor in 1820 (Ford, 1882, p. $39) shows a dam near the mouth of Kenduskeag stream. This dam was probably built about 1795 when a sawmill was erected at the head of tide (Ford, 1882, p. ^39)-
In I830, the main river was dammed at Oldtown which "seriously hindered the passage of shad and alewives" (Atkins, I889, p. 709). About 1835, a dam was built at Veazie which closed the main river below Oldtown.
"This did not completely obstruct the passage of fish. "By the gradual washing away of the left bank of the river, there was uncovered a crevice in the ledge which enabled salmon to ascend, and they were thus preserved from complete destruction, but shad and alewives never recovered, though there is evidence that shad sometimes, in small numbers, passed both the above dams.
" Very soon after the building of these dams a rapid decline in the fisheries began. The shad fishery was in a few years utterly extinguished." (Atkins, I889, p. 711).
Writing of the period about 1794, Ford (1882, p. 539) states; "Fish, too, began to be a marketable commodity. The streams were full of them, Salmon, shad, and alewives were taken under Lover's Leap, at the mouths of the Mantawassuck, Segeundedunk and Sowadabscook streams and at Penobscot Falls,
"No record was mads of the quantity or value of fish taken in any one year, but between thirty and four hundred barrels of shad and alewives were usually taken at one tide at each of the several places or eddies - the average would be from 75 to 100 barrels. At Treat's Falls sometimes 40 salmon were taken in a day.
"The fishing season, in the spring, continued about five weeks; time of greatest plenty, two weeks. Salmon were taken during
three months at least, but they were not too ab
undant. From
$1 to $1.25 per barrel were paid from the vessels for alewives,
and what were then considered fair prices for shad. Newburyport vessels were engaged in the trade and took large quantities
of fish to Southern markets and the West Indies for plantation
purposes." (Ford, l882, p.539)
.
Describing events in Bangor for the year l827, Ford wrote:
"Some opinion may be formed in regard to the immense quantities of fish in the Penobscot at the head of tide, when it is understood that 7,000 shad and 100 barrels of alewives were taken at one haul of the seine, about the middle of May this year. This was an unusual fish year. Shad were sold at Oldtown at 5^ a hurdred, and alewives were deemed hardly worth saving," (Pord, l882, p. 6.35).
By the time the Bangor Dam of the Bangor Water Works was completed in 1877, a shad fishery had ceased to exist. Because brackish water back up nearly if not quite to the city of Bangor, there are no suitable spawninging areasfor shad between the Bangor dam and the sea."
End of excerpt
Full document: https://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/SSRF/SSRF66.pdf
