Flashes of silver on Lake Michigan right now are mainly dead/dying alewife. An Atlantic species, they can survive in freshwater year-round but are generally in poor shape this time of year. They die and wash up.
oh, wow -- this gives me sudden onset memories from my teenage years! heading over to the dunes during "alewife season" ... the smell was not particularly pleasant
In their native habitat they are bigger and mostly don't die after spawning.
In the Great Lakes the reason for dying isn't very clear, but likely poor condition after winter, stress from always being in freshwater, and spawning stress.
A lot of the dead ones I see are fairly small.
A college roommate (I am no longer in college) from Chicago told me about dead alewife season. That was years ago! We’re still letting this happen?! 🍣🎏
The first report of them in Lake Ontario was in the 1870s. They came through the Erie Canal. They made it past Niagara Falls via the Welland Canal by the 1930s.
They really took off in Lake Michigan in the mid-1900s.
