ALEWIFE

also called Sawbelly, Grayback, Gaspereau, or Branch Herring (Pomolobus, or Alosa, pseudoharengus), important North American food fish of the herring family, Clupeidae. Deeper-bodied than the true herring, the alewife has a pronounced saw-edge on the underside; it grows to about 30 cm (1 foot). Except for members of a few lake populations, it spends several years along the Atlantic coast of North America before ascending freshwater streams (possibly the parent stream) to spawn each spring in ponds or sluggish rivers. Alewives entered the Great Lakes through the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Welland Canal. In the 1960s they multiplied so rapidly that they became a nuisance, threatening the native fishes by competing for the same food sources. Importation of coho and king salmon brought the alewife population into balance in the Great Lakes in the 1970s.