Alewife

Family Clupeidae

REMARKS Maximum length 38 cm, usual length 25 to 30 cm. The back is greyish green, the sides and belly silvery. The sides of freshly caught specimens are iridescent; and sea-run fish have a golden tinge to the head. The range of the species is from North Carolina up to Newfoundland; and the French Canadian name is Gaspareau.

Josselyn, in his Account of Two Voyages to New England (1765), says that ‘The Alewife is like a Herrin, but has a bigger bellie; therefore, called an Alewife; they come in the end of April into fresh Rivers and Ponds . . .’ Well put. The alewives ascend rivers to spawn, and constitute during the summer a large proportion of the fish in the rivers of the eastern seaboard. They are, by the way, sometimes called sawbellies.