Restoring Historic Fish Run in Connecticut

For more than a century, alewives have swum in from Long Island Sound in the spring and gathered at the base of the Jordan Mill Pond dam in a futile effort to swim into their historic freshwater spawning habitat in Jordan Brook and its upland streams.

This winter, NOAA Fisheries, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, the town of Waterford, Save the Sound and the Connecticut Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership joined forces to install a fishway that now allows fish to bypass the dam and reach more than 4 miles of stream that have not been used by alewives and other fish species for 150 years.

Federal, state, local and community leaders will gather at Jordan Mill Park in Waterford, Conn., at 11 a.m., on Saturday, June 2, to dedicate the new 65-foot fishway and celebrate the restoration of coastal habitat. Local volunteers and scouts will plant grasses and shrubs along the riverbank prior to the ceremony at 10 a.m.

"Save the Sound is proud to be part of this event celebrating the reopening of Jordan Brook to alewives and other species of fish after 100 years or more of damage by mankind," said Curt Johnson, senior attorney and program director with Connecticut Fund for the Environment. "We would especially like to acknowledge the coordination of our partners with local citizens and Waterford First Selectman Daniel M. Steward that has made this project successful."

The project will also help restore fish populations that were harmed when 27,000 gallons of No. 2 fuel oil spilled accidentally from the Reinauer Transportation Company barge that grounded in Fishers Island Sound on Dec. 21, 1992. A settlement agreement reached with Reinauer by NOAA's Damage Assessment, Remediation, and Restoration Program (www.darrp.noaa.gov) and the state of Connecticut resulted in damages amounting to $100,000. The state directed a portion of these funds designated for coastal restoration to the Jordan Mill Pond project.

"It’s very exciting to see the Jordan Mill Pond fishway installed and functioning after so many years of planning and effort by the project partners," said Perry F. Gayaldo, the Deputy Chief of NOAA’s Restoration Center. "This project will compensate the public for damages caused by the Long Island Sound oil spill over 15 years ago. I am grateful to the local, state and federal partners who have worked so diligently this past decade to ensure its completion."

By restoring this historic fish run, federal, state and local partners are helping more than the river herring and sea-run brown trout that now have access to eight acres of freshwater spawning and nursing areas. This newly accessible habitat will stimulate increases in both forage and predator fish populations. The alewife provides important food for striped bass, bluefish and other fish. Commercial and recreational fishermen will benefit from more available fish and more places to find fish, as the fishway strengthens the entire coastal ecosystem.

"This project is an excellent example of how local, state, federal and non-profit partners can work together to protect our state’s natural resources," said DEP Deputy Commissioner Amey Marrella. "This project shows how Connecticut’s communities can come together to act not only locally to restore and protect Long Island Sound and its inhabitants, but to also bring to the forefront the larger role that Long Island sound plays in the global ecosystem."

The project cost an estimated $170,000. In addition to settlement money, funding was available through a NOAA Community-based Restoration Program partnership with Save the Sound, a program of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, and the Connecticut Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership. The project would not have been possible without the leadership and services (permitting, construction and oversight) of the town of Waterford and the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Inland Fisheries Division and Office of Long Island Sound Programs. OLISP services were funded through the Environmental Protection Agency’s Long Island Sound Study.

The project will leave a lasting educational contribution in the park for the public. Interpretive signs at the fishway will explain the importance of river herring to the Long Island Sound ecosystem and the public will be able to view the fishway, and the spring herring migration, from the pedestrian bridge over the dam near the exit to the fishway.