TIMES RECORD • September 21, 2023
The Phippsburg Select Board signed a letter of support Wednesday night for a federal grant that would go toward the construction of a fishway leading from the lower Kennebec River into Center Pond. The current fishway — which allows alewives, a species of herring, to pass through a shallow tidal stream into the pond to spawn in freshwater — is only effective for about 47% of the tidal cycle. The other 53% of the time, fish are either unable to enter the pond to spawn or are stranded on shallow rocks to die. With the extension of the tidal stream, proposed by the Center Pond River Herring Committee, alewives will be able to pass through during 85% of the tidal cycle.