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Response of Estuarine Fish Biomass to Restoration in the Penobscot River, Maine

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Abstract

Diadromous fish use both freshwater and marine habitats to complete their life cycles, but dams restrict those connections, and as a result, many populations are historically low across their range. The Penobscot River, Maine, USA, once had large populations of diadromous fish and has recently been the focus of large restoration projects. Our objective was to assess the river restoration impacts in the estuary using mobile, multi-frequency echosounders (SIMRAD EK60 split-beam 38 and 120 kHz) to construct a time series of fish distribution using metrics of fish length and fish density, both seasonally and pre-restoration (2012–2014) versus post-restoration (2015–2019). Seasonally, fish size was the smallest in summer, while density and biomass were greater as compared to spring and fall. Between pre- and post-restoration years, fish length did not differ, and with a median of 4.7 cm, median density increased from less than 0.5 fish m−2 to greater than 1 fish m−2. Fish biomass was approximately three times greater in post-restoration years where it ranged 23 to 316 mt per survey than pre-restoration years where it ranged from 9 to 114 mt per survey. These patterns are consistent with a system undergoing restoration of migratory fish where larger adult fish migrate in the spring and their juveniles in the summer and fall. This study demonstrates the ecological impacts of river restoration on its estuary by quantifying multiple metrics (fish biomass, density, and size).

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study that can be shared publicly are openly available in InPort at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport, at ID number 27491. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Michael O’Malley for his role in refining acoustic survey methods and data processing protocols. We thank Rory Saunders, Tim Sheehan and Christine Lipsky for their contribution to the conceptual design of the estuary survey and the overall Penobscot River monitoring efforts. We thank the various staff and interns at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Northeast Fisheries Science Center Atlantic Salmon Ecosystems Research Team for support in conducting acoustic surveys especially Dr. John Kocik.

Funding

Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public and does not constitute endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the US Government. This research was supported, in part, by NOAA through the Cooperative Institute for the North Atlantic Region (CINAR) under Cooperative Agreement NA14OAR4320158.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Maine Sea Grant, University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04473, USA

    Justin R. Stevens & Gayle B. Zydlewski

  2. NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, Woods Hole, Northeast Fisheries Science Center, MA, 02543, USA

    J. Michael Jech

  3. University of Maine, School of Marine Sciences, Orono, ME, 04473, USA

    Gayle B. Zydlewski & Damian C. Brady

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  1. Justin R. Stevens
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Correspondence to Justin R. Stevens.

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Communicated by James Allen Nelson

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Stevens, J.R., Jech, J.M., Zydlewski, G.B. et al. Response of Estuarine Fish Biomass to Restoration in the Penobscot River, Maine. Estuaries and Coasts 47, 535–550 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-023-01292-w

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