A community celebrates the return of a different kind of summer visitor
Now in its seventh year, Alewife Day draws hundreds to celebrate the area’s popular migratory fish
Children play in Pierce’s Pond, a key spawning destination for alewives. Photo by John Boit.
May 26, 2026
By John Boit
PENOBSCOT — The annual Alewife Day celebration returned to Penobscot on May 23, drawing residents and visitors to Mill Creek and Pierce’s Pond to celebrate the migratory tradition of the spring return of alewives.
The event, now in its seventh year, highlighted both the ecological and cultural importance of the fish, which migrate each spring from the ocean into freshwater ponds to spawn. In Penobscot, the fish travel up Mill Creek and into Pierce’s Pond, where the annual run has become both a conservation success story and a growing community tradition. Alewives also migrate into nearby Wight’s Pond in Penobscot, Walker Pond in Brooksville, and up the Naramissic River in Orland, which also held its own Migratory Fish Day event on the same day.
Several nonprofit organizations and environmental groups attended the Penobscot event with exhibits focused on marine ecosystems, watershed restoration and local wildlife. Families moved between tables throughout the day, learning about everything from zooplankton to fish migration and stream ecology.
Bailey Bowden, chair of the Penobscot Alewife Committee, served smoked alewives to visitors curious to sample the fish. At another table, kids pressed alewives rolled in paint onto t-shirts. Nearby, George Fields, director of Blue Hill Heritage Trust, demonstrated a small-scale model of a “beaver deceiver,” a temporary box placed in the middle of a beaver dam that allows alewives to pass upstream.
George Fields of BHHT demonstrates the concept of the “beaver deceiver.” Video by John Boit.
The event also featured archaeology displays connected to the recent Mill Creek culvert replacement project. Archaeologist Elizabeth Rodgers showed pottery fragments, glassware, metal spikes and other artifacts uncovered during excavation tied to the stream restoration effort that involved the recent replacement of an aging culvert at Mill Stream. The rebuilt culvert was designed in part to improve fish passage and allow alewives easier access upstream to spawning habitat in Pierce’s Pond.
Among the busiest areas was the student-run food stand, where Penobscot students sold hot dogs, snacks and drinks to raise money for a class trip to Boston. Meanwhile, Penobscot residents Ben Petersen and Shelly Griffin brought a newborn lamb that was a hit as an impromptu petting zoo.
Mike Thalhauser of Maine Coast Heritage Trust said the event, attended by an estimated 300 people, has evolved into something deeper than a simple educational fair.
“It feels like it’s becoming more of the culture of the community,” Thalhauser said. “Everybody here is just engaged, learning what's happened since last year.”
Thalhauser said many visitors returned specifically to learn more about topics introduced during previous events, including archaeology work and marine science projects.
“Our presenters are getting more into it, too,” he said. “People aren’t just taking pamphlets because somebody handed them one. They’re coming for the information.”
Thalhauser said the gathering reflects a modern version of a much older community relationship with alewives and local waterways.
“Eighty years ago, a lot of people in town were out harvesting fish and doing things like that,” he said. “[We] don’t live in that world anymore. But people come here now. This is the gathering place.”
