For the first time in more than a century, American shad, river herring, and Atlantic salmon can swim freely around the Howland dam to and from important historic spawning and rearing habitat, thanks to the completion of the large, stream-like fish “bypass” channel around the dam. The bypass reconnected the Piscataquis River to the main stem of the Penobscot and the Gulf of Maine, allowing sea-run fish to swim freely past the dam for the first time in almost 200 years.
The completion fulfilled the Penobscot Project’s goal of significantly improving access to 2,000 miles of Maine’s largest river for 11 species of native sea-run fish while maintaining energy through increased hydropower generation at other dams in the watershed.
LINK (via: The Bangor Daily News)
Great to hear. The Penobscot ran behind my fraternity at the University of Maine. I don’t remember there being many fish in that stretch of the river back then, but hopefully in the near future these various fish will make it up that high.