One thing I love about Keith's job, is being able to volunteer and help with projects he has going on. Since we arrived in Maine, the refuge has been working on a project to create fish passages to lakes that have for the last 80 years been closed off to fish. If a passage is not available to a lake, the fish can not return to spawn, which then causes fish populations to drop. It has been a fun project to watch as the road culverts have been removed and replaced and converted to a fish passage. After the culverts were converted the issue you have is fish don't know that they can return to the lake. Fish return to the lakes they were born. if no fish have been born in a lake for 80 years, they just don't know/ So the refuge restocked Alewives(a type of fish) to the lakes in hopes that they will spawn and then next year the babies will return to the lake they were born. It is a huge step for the refuge. With help from the local tribal leaders, it has been a success! I hope next year to see hundreds returning to the lakes! I'll post next year if that happens! But here are some pictures from our release. The boys and I got to go help the refuge staff and Tribal leaders. Great teaching moments for my kids right there, when they can chat with the Chief and hear how critical this step is for both the refuge and the tribes in the area.
Kaden releasing fish in his baseball uniform... we were on the way to a game. hahahaha
Isaiah helping the Chief release some Alewives
Forgot my boots, but that didn't stop me from helping in this historic event!
Alewives
Luke helping by holding my socks hahaha
On the way after the release we stopped at one of the rivers to see the Alewives that were migrating to the lakes from the oceans. THOUSANDS!!!
We could catch them with our hands.... we released them all
Luke loved it!
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