This 80-mile relay in northern Maine traces the alewife migration up the St. Croix

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • May 11, 2026

As thousands of river herring begin their upstream migration this month, runners will do the same. Joggers on May 23 will pace the alewife run from the Passamaquoddy Reservation at Sipayik (Pleasant Point), 80 miles up the St. Croix River to Forest City in Washington County. The St. Croix River, known as the Skutik River to the Indigenous people of northern Maine and southeastern Canada, was once a vital migratory highway for tens of millions of alewives, said Brian Altvater Sr.