- Up next on "Borealis."

(upbeat music) A small fish with a mighty impact.

We explore the comeback of alewives.

Murray Carpenter takes us to the Western Maine Mountains to meet some anglers who break the mold.

And starting 'em young, middle schoolers become citizen scientists in Acadia National Park.

Stay with us.

- [Announcer] Production support for "Borealis" is provided by- - [Spokesperson] The Nature Conservancy in Maine, joining science, action, and innovative partners to help connect communities and address the global climate crisis.

From our forests to our rivers to the Gulf of Maine, learn more at nature.org/joinmaine.

- [Spokesperson 2] At Poland Spring, we've called Maine home since 1845 and are proud to be part of the community, over the past two decades, investing more than $12 million in the place that we call home.

Poland Spring, 100% natural spring water.

- [Announcer] And by viewers like you, thank you.

- You guys ready to hike?

(light rock music) ♪ Wanna get lost in the wilderness with you, darling ♪ ♪ Wanna get lost in the rivers and roads ♪ ♪ Get you up on the mountain side ♪ ♪ For ages to come ♪ - Hello.

I'm Aislinn Sarnacki, and this is the very first episode of "Borealis."

Thank you for joining us.

Over the next few weeks, we're gonna bring you all over Maine to some pretty remote locations.

But believe it or not, as we stand here among these tall trees with this bubbling brook in Mill Brook Preserve, we're in the middle of Westbrook in an urban oasis where people walk their dogs and go jogging, and once a year, they get to witness something pretty remarkable.

(light music) Like clockwork, Westbrook's peaceful Mill Brook Preserve is interrupted every spring by one of Mother Nature's great spectacles.

(water rushes) - You can see it up close and in person here, individual fish jumping.

You can see the individual make its way up to the climb and then either make it or not make it.

So, there's that natural drama that plays out several times a minute as you're here, which makes it a really popular spot for people to come and observe.

It's an amazing moment in nature that you can see from a riverbank, which is rare.

You don't have to be on "Blue Planet" to see something like this.

- [Aislinn] The main character of this drama is a small fish called the alewife.

Alewives are anadromous, meaning they spend most of their life in the ocean, but spawn in fresh water.

After four or five years in the Gulf of Maine, these alewives now swim 11 miles upstream to spawn in Highland Lake, returning to where they were born.

- So, I would think about alewives as the most important fish in the sea, the river and the lake.

- [Aislinn] Zach Whitener studies alewives at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

He says they're critical to the food chain and have been eaten by all kinds of animals and humans, too, for millennia.

- Alewives have been incredibly important to both ecosystems and to humans in this area since the last ice age.

We can't even begin to think about how many fish there used to be in all of these rivers.

You read historical documents about the river being black with fish.

It's hard to imagine that being true.

It sounds like hyperbole, but if there's alewives running, you can't see the bottom of that little brook because there's so many fish in it.

- [Aislinn] Seeing the alewives here in Mill Brook again is a precious thing to Zach and other conservationists.

For a long time, their population was in trouble, decimated by dams built by early colonists and others.

- There was a precipitous drop off in alewife numbers for the last few hundred years, and things got really bad probably in the '70s, '80s, early '90s, with habitat being much reduced and overfishing occurring.

- [Aislinn] Awareness of the impact that dams and mills were having on alewives and other anadromous fish like herring and salmon did not catch on until the early 21st century when the removal of many key dams allowed for these resilient fish to return.

With the help of scientists and conservationists, these fish slowly began to show up in rivers and streams that hadn't seen an alewife in more than two centuries.

- [Zach] Their populations have really grown in the last few years.

Before the restoration projects and dam removals within the last 10 years, the run on the Presumpscot River was estimated to be a couple thousand fish.

As of last week, they recently passed 3 million fish, and so, they've really responded to the opening up of habitats.

- [Aislinn] Now, visitors to this southern Maine preserve can watch the action unfold just as the original people living on this land did for hundreds of generations.

(water rushes) 60 miles away, it's a whole different scene as millions of alewives headed to Damariscotta Lake make their way up a manmade fish ladder.

- It's a 42 foot rise, I think, up to the lake.

And so, there's 69 pools or thereabouts, and they're divided up so that each pool has an eight to 10 inch drop or rise up into the next pool up.

And that is the most efficient measurement for alewives to go from one pool to the next.

- [Aislinn] This fish ladder has been in place here since the early 1800s, built originally to help alewives bypass an early sawmill.

- We organized a neighborhood group here at Damariscotta Mills.

- [Aislinn] Deb Wilson and her husband, Mark, are the stewards of this fish ladder now.

Since 2006, they've been steering efforts to restore it with the help of community here.

- And what you're looking at behind me now is the first third.

This part was done first because it was accessible by road, and we had to figure out how to get to the rest of it.

- [Aislinn] The entire restoration took 10 years to complete and was funded by a combination of festivals and grants totaling a million dollars along with plenty of sweat equity.

- So, that's what we did.

One pool after another, all the way down, 69 pools.

It was quite an enterprise, but right now, it's working in an amazing way and going from say 80,000 fish back in 2007, we're up to getting over a million every single year up into Damariscotta Lake to spawn.

So, a pretty exciting change.

- [Aislinn] The migration here is now one of the biggest in the state.

It's so successful that now trucks line up twice a day during migration to harvest alewives.

(water rushes) They're sold as lobster bait to local fishermen, making it a key component of the economy here.

- They're pretty important.

I think that having a local source of bait is a good thing and it's traditional, too.

A lot of the guys who come to get bait here have been doing it for 25 years.

They may have come with their fathers before that, and it's almost like a rite of spring, as well.

- [Aislinn] With strict rules surrounding the harvest, Mark believes that this alewife run will remain successful into the future.

- If we're having a good day, you know, we may get a couple hundred bushels in the course of the day.

The numbers in terms of what we're harvesting have been steadily going up compared to what they were before the fish ladder restoration happened.

Our goal is to harvest as many fish as we can but only harvest those fish that we can sell.

- [Aislinn] Every spring, as the alewives make their way up to the Damariscotta River, the ospreys and eagles arrive, lining the banks, along with tourists from all over the world.

Armed with cameras, they're here for the feeding frenzy that only lasts a few weeks.

- Wherever the wildlife is, that's where I try to go, yeah.

- [Aislinn] Steven Chu is a photographer from New Jersey who made the trip to capture the excitement.

- If there's action, the photographers will come.

So, yeah, once one person knows, he tells his friend, and he tells his friend and then it becomes a crowd.

(light music) - [Aislinn] The story of the humble alewife is still being told, and their future is far from certain, as many of New England's rivers and streams still have dams and impediments that limit the ancient migration patterns of these fish.

But with the tireless efforts of scientists, naturalists and concerned citizens, the future holds promise for this intrepid little fish and all of the species of animals who depend on them to survive.

- The dark days of the early '90s, I hope and think those are past us now.

There's a lot more interest at every level in dam removals and improvement in fish passage when dams can't be removed.

I think that there's a lot of work that's been going on to make sure that these fish are properly managed, both in the rivers and in the ocean.

And I think that we're only gonna see more alewives going forward.

So, alewives, I think, are poised for a resurgence for decades to come.

(inspirational music) - To learn more about the Damariscotta Mills fish ladder and the Mill Brook Preserve, head on over to our YouTube channel.

For our next story, we're headed deep into the mountains of western Maine.

Reporter Murray Carpenter will be introducing us to a group of anglers who are working to share the joys of fly fishing with more people.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - [Murray] On a sunny June morning, fishing guide Jared Ouellette walks into an eddy on the Wild River, reaches down under the cold water and pulls up a round rock.

- So, there's a really tiny mayfly nymph on this guy- - Oh, yeah.

- Writhing around in the water there.

- Wow.

How did you see that?

- [Murray] He's revealing one of the many tricks he's picked up through years of fly fishing, flipping rocks.

- Flipping rocks is like just kind of a good place to start when you get to like a new stretch of water.

Trout mainly feed on insects, and a lot of those are like nymphal stages of things called mayflies or caddisflies or stoneflies, and they kind of just hang out and cling to the bottom of rocks.

So, it's a really good way to just get a feel of, you know, what sort of insect life is in the stretch of river.

- [Murray] It's a classic scene on a western Maine river, an experienced guide sharing the secrets and magic of fly fishing with enthusiastic anglers.

- [Jared] Yeah.

- [Zsakee] It's pretty.

- [Jared] So, this up here is elk hair, and it's got lots of like hollow cavities on the inside of it, so it's really, really buoyant.

- [Murray] But this gathering's anything but typical.

The participants have signed up for a special weekend called Outcast Camp, put on by a new organization, the Confluence Collective.

- Thank you all so much for being so open with one another.

So excited that you're here.

- [Murray] Zsakee Lewis came from Staten Island for her second Confluence Collective retreat.

She says the organization's helping to diversify the sport of fly fishing for women, people who are LGBTQ and people of color.

- You open up a magazine or you go online, or, you know, you're looking for gear, and the person fly fishing isn't gonna look like me, right?

Like, and so, to the lay person, that might give you the impression that, you know, this isn't something that is accessible to me, but it is.

- Maine is known for its diversity of fly fishing opportunities.

There's wild brook trout and high cold streams like this one and smallmouth bass in the big rivers and stripers down along the coast.

But it's not been known for diversity among anglers themselves.

- So, this, if you're not able to see your fly on the water, don't strain too much.

Try a parachute.

- [Murray] Bri Dostie has been fishing since she was six and fly fishing since she was 15.

She founded the Confluence Collective in 2019.

- The Confluence started as a way to define a more inclusive and expansive and dynamic culture that would work for the full diversity of anglers that exists that we don't see as much on the water.

- So, I think that we have to kind of change our perspective and change the imagery around, like, these activities that we enjoy.

And the Confluence Collective provides just that, like an opportunity to see and interact and to learn from people that don't appear to be your typical fly fishing enthusiasts but are, but are just as knowledgeable and, you know, welcoming and astute as anyone else.

As the old pros, perhaps.

- [Murray] Many of the participants are new to fly fishing, others, more experienced.

Lauren Murdock has been fly fishing for years, but she says this weekend feels different.

- I actually have never fished with anyone but men before.

So, this is a really awesome experience.

- [Murray] As Zsakee and Lauren cast for trout on the Wild River, another group of anglers travels to the Magalloway River in far northwestern Maine.

Native brook trout and landlocked salmon are rising, eating flies from the surface of the river.

Guide Megan Hess and three Outcast Camp anglers spent the morning on the river.

The fish were very picky, but by lunchtime, everyone in the group had caught a fish except Bev Pigeon.

Then a feisty landlocked salmon smashed her fly.

- Yay.

- Good job.

Good job.

- Yeah, it was like rising here again and again and again and again.

- That was fighting hard.

That fish was healthy.

What a beautiful fish.

- [Murray] Dostie says this is what it's all about, the way that rivers and fish can bring people together.

- Oh, that was just beautiful.

- Woo.

- I found some of my most beautiful relationships in my life on the water.

It's fueled my creative practice.

It has brought me together with people that'll be a part of my life forever.

And I found myself out here in ways that I couldn't possibly imagine outside of being in nature, wouldn't allow myself the space and the grace and the humility in order to really know myself.

So, I feel like it's just something that every person should have the opportunity to explore for themselves.

- [Murray] Outcast Camp isn't just about fly fishing.

(anglers shout and laugh) There's also fly tying, good food and campfires, but in the end, it's not about those, either.

- Catching a fish is great, right?

Tying flies is great, but just enjoying the environment, I think, is something that we have access to as fly fishers that, like, no one else does.

You know, I find a lot of calm and peace and enjoyment in nature, and this is just another way for me to access that.

I could be hunting.

I could be doing other types of fishing.

I could be going for a hike, but I'm fly fishing and there's a lot of joy in that.

- [Murray] And in this way, a whole new and different breed of fly anglers are emerging from the waters of Maine.

For "Borealis," I'm Murray Carpenter.

- The Confluence Collective also hosts Outcast Camps in Wisconsin and Montana.

There's a concern that kids are spending just a little bit too much time on the screen and not enough time outside.

But there's people all over Maine working to fix that.

One of the longest running programs is right on the Schoodic Peninsula, and I got to join the kids for a few days.

(light music) - [Kate] Morning, everyone.

How you doing?

- [Kids] Good.

- Excellent.

All right, so, got a lot of great stuff planned for you.

We have Bar Harbor just moving into camp.

They'll be with us for three days and they get, they're really excited.

- [Aislinn] These kids are ready for a big adventure.

They're taking part in the long running Schoodic Education Adventure, or SEA.

Over the next three days, they'll become scientists and explorers as they learn about this landscape and ocean hands-on.

Kate Petrie, the education coordinator for the park, has been leading the program for 25 years.

I ask her what makes learning at SEA different from learning in the classroom.

- The outdoor classroom, the ability to connect with it, a chance to get kids outside back to the real basics, not a book or electronics, but the real basics of what makes up the earth around them and help them to reconnect with the wonderment that they had as little kids.

- [Instructor] That's a good question.

- [Aislinn] These kids are all from sixth grade, but there are SEA programs for fifth through eighth grade with a variety of lessons and activities for teachers to choose from to fit their curriculum.

- And the minerals are slowing down.

- [Aislinn] After the picnic lunch, the students break into groups to hike one of the park's trails and learn about geology along the way.

- [Instructor] We're looking at this rock.

How does it look different from this one that we're sitting on?

- Different colors.

- Different colors, yeah.

- [Aislinn] Amanda Pollock, the public affairs officer for Acadia, says that SEA allows students to dip their toes in conservation and understand why it's important.

- This program is a perfect example of exactly what the National Park Service is looking to do at all levels.

The National Park Service's mission is to preserve and protect these landscapes for future generations and hopefully inspire those future generations to want to continue with this mission and continue to help us take care of these national parks.

- [Aislinn] Also on the first day, students learn about navigation using a giant map of Maine and GPS devices.

- Some of you are gonna go off the map.

30 kilometers.

Now, you can see- - [Aislinn] Alexa Pezzano, the director of SEA, teaches the map and compass course.

She's also in charge of keeping everything in the program running smoothly.

- It's an incredible place and incredible program, and I think myself and all of my staff recognize that on a regular basis.

- [Aislinn] The instructors are park rangers, outdoor educators and volunteers with expertise in certain subjects.

Middle school science teacher Brian Cote has been bringing his students for many years.

- I think the biggest thing they get away for out of this program is a sleepover camp.

Most of these kids have never done it.

So, to come and spend some time away from mom and dad and be with their peers, it's a big deal.

It's really exciting for most kids.

One thing I get a lot of is like on the way home they're like, "Mr. Cote, can we go back there for eighth grade class trip?"

And I'm like, "No, but obviously, you had a lot of fun."

- [Aislinn] After dinner, the middle schoolers end their day with outdoor games about the amazing abilities of owls and other night creatures.

- That's amazing.

- Now, I'd like you to try taking your deer ears away.

- [Student] I hear different.

- Yeah, no, you can hear the ocean so much more.

- Leaders for our trip today.

We are heading down into the tide pools this morning.

We're gonna do some citizen science.

It's gonna be a lot of fun.

- [Aislinn] Students rise bright and early the next morning to catch low tide.

- [Student 2] Photograph our crab handler, or are we- - So, you all are gonna be collecting real data that goes to the study on green crabs.

- [Aislinn] The data that the students collect will go to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute where research is being done to track green crab populations.

In recent years, green crab numbers have skyrocketed in certain areas, throwing coastal ecosystems out of balance and threatening the shellfish industry.

- To do, 'cause if they're invasive, they're just gonna be more invasive.

So, like, we can't really do anything, like you said, 'cause it's a national park.

So, like, what are we supposed to do?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

So, what you guys can do is actually record this data.

So, this data actually goes to real scientists.

Kind of look at seeing how many green crabs there are in one area.

All right, do you guys have your iPad?

- [Student 3] Yep.

- [Instructor 2] Quadra.

- [Student 4] Yep.

- Someone has the journal page?

- Yep.

- Someone has the bucket.

- Yeah.

- It is a different thing if you've never walked on seaweed before.

Very slippery.

It's like walking on spaghetti.

So, we're gonna look in our quadrants, and the data collector is going to collect any data when we find our crabs.

So, we're gonna practice leave no trace ethics.

Also, putting the rockweed back in any rocks.

Please don't move a rock bigger than your head.

I know you guys are really strong.

While you're looking, too, kind of notice all the different species of rockweed here.

We have a lot of different ones.

It's pretty unique.

You got some Irish moss, got different types of rockweed in through here, as well.

And on the rocks.

- [Student 5] I don't see any crabs.

- Isn't that a crab?

- [Student 6] I think we need the tweezers.

Milo, can I have the tweezers?

- [Milo] No.

- [Instructor 2] They're so small though.

I bet there's a bunch hiding in here.

- [Student 7] Oh wow.

- [Instructor 2] There's some moss in here.

- Crab, crab, crab.

Is that a crab?

Hey!

- Put it in the bucket.

- [Student 7] Crab.

(students murmur) - [Instructor 2] So, I want the crab handler to also grab the caliper.

So the red little ruler thing.

- [Student 7] I'll grab it.

- All right.

So, you guys got a lot of really cool crabs.

So, we're going to collect data on every single one of them.

Hold this crab.

Make it a little bit easier.

Hold the top and the bottom.

- Yeah.

- So like that.

Then it doesn't move as much.

What do you think?

- It's like three.

- What are we reading?

- Two on the dot.

- Two on the dot.

So, for science, we wanna write a 10th of a decimal, right?

So 2 point?

- Zero.

- Zero.

- Is he a straight V?

Yep.

- Yeah, he looks like a V. - So, male or female?

- Male.

- There you go.

- [Student 8] Put two.

- [Student 9] For number of claws?

- [Student 8] Yeah, there's two.

- Aw, this guy's so cute.

- Okay.

All right.

- [Instructor 2] It won't pinch you.

- All right.

- [Aislinn] Nick Fisichelli, president of the Schoodic Institute, says the green crab study is one of over 80 research projects happening in the park each year.

- So, we think science is for everyone and everyone can contribute to science.

And so, the research here, really about understanding the changes happening in Acadia.

- [Aislinn] Are these kids actually making a difference when they're looking for crabs?

- These kids are making a difference.

Yes, absolutely.

You know, there's great examples that, actually, through some of these middle school classes, look, helping us just pay attention to what's happening out here.

They've found, for example, Asian shore crab here on the Schoodic Peninsula, and it was the first observation of that species.

And so, they've play a really important role in the science, in helping us pay attention to what's happening in Acadia and to how it's changing.

- Remember some of you didn't quite wanna touch it 'cause it was really slimy.

This is okay.

- [Aislinn] After rummaging through the seaweed for crabs, students return to campus to enter the data they collected.

- Closeup of native crab spines.

No, we don't have any natives.

- [Aislinn] The afternoon is devoted to learning about native trees.

- Oh, that's cool.

That's cool.

- Here, fast friends Frances and Anika identify a spruce using a scientific key.

- Are they the brown?

- Yeah, so it'll be- - A lot of the things we've done, like, we've talked about in science class, but like, you get to do it hands-on instead of like our teacher telling us what it is.

- [Aislinn] What do you think the benefit of that is, doing things hands-on?

- Maybe that you, like, you remember it better because you get to actually figure it out for yourself instead of, like, someone just telling you how it works.

- The rangers are awesome.

They are amazing.

They are really kind and considerate.

It's been enlightening and entertaining, and I have to say it's exciting.

This is a whole new experience, yeah.

- This one does not mind that one, so if you have to put the big one in there, these two small ones- - [Aislinn] It seems like it'd be very rewarding to introduce children to the outdoors in this way.

- It is what fuels a lot of my staff and myself to do what we do.

I mean, there's a lot of long days and set up and break down, but when you're out there in the environment with kids and you see the light bulb go on and the energy, it's all worth it.

- On the next episode of "Borealis," we meet up with Wabanaki youth leader Nyle Sockbeson as he completes his epic journey of the Appalachian Trail.

We'll learn why he did it and who inspired him.

We also head to the Rangeley region, where we'll go on an adventure with a group of young people whose families recently arrived in Maine to seek asylum.

As we say goodbye, we leave you in the skies over Moosehead, Maine's largest lake.

Thank you for joining us for the first episode of "Borealis."

I hope you'll return next time.

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