n., pl. -wives (-wīvz').

A fish (Alosa pseudoharengus) closely related to the herrings and native to North American Atlantic waters and some inland lakes.

[Probably alteration (influenced by ALEWIFE²) of obsolete allowes, a type of shad, from French alose, shad, from Old French, from Late Latin alausa.]

ale·wife² (āl'wīf')
n., pl. -wives (-wīvz').

A woman who keeps an alehouse.

Alosa pseudoharengus

FAMILY

Clupeidae

TAXONOMY

Alosa pseudoharengus Wilson, 1811, Delaware River at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.

OTHER COMMON NAMES

English: Bigeye herring, branch herring, freshwater herring, golden shad, grayback, gray herring, green shad, kyack, mulhaden, sawbelly, spring herring, white herring; French: Alose gaspareau, gaspareau, gasparot, gasperot; German: Maifisch; Spanish: Alosa, pinchagua.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Sea-run alewives reach a maximum length of 15 in (38.1 cm); landlocked alewives are typically around 6 in (15.2 cm). Small bodies. Strongly compressed laterally. Silvery bodies with grayish green backs. A row of scutes runs along the ventral edge of the belly. A single black spot is present behind the head.

DISTRIBUTION

Atlantic coast of North America, from the St. Lawrence River and Nova Scotia, Canada, to North Carolina. Numerous translocations of this species have resulted in the establishment of landlocked populations in many inland water bodies, including all of the Great Lakes.

HABITAT

Spends a large portion of its life at sea and migrates into inland freshwater streams for spawning. Landlocked populations live entirely in inland lakes or river systems.

BEHAVIOR

Forms schools in open water. Sea-run alewives migrate from the sea to freshwater streams to spawn. Populations in lakes migrate on a diel basis, moving inshore at night and retreating to deeper offshore waters during the day.

FEEDING ECOLOGY AND DIET

Feeds on zooplankton, primarily copepods, cladocerans, mysids, and ostracods. Inshore adults eat insect larvae as a large part of their diet.

REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY

Moves from the sea to rivers for spawning, with the timing of migration dependent on water temperature. In lakes, alewives move onto shallow beaches and into ponds to spawn. Males and females mature at one and two years of age, respectively. Females usually move to the spawning site before males. Groups of 2–3 fish spawn at night over gravel or rocky substrates. Eggs are broadcast by females and fertilized in the water column by males. Immediately after spawning, the eggs sink and adhere to the substrate. Upon hatching, the young remain at the spawning grounds until the late larval stage and then move slowly into deeper water or the sea.

CONSERVATION STATUS

Not listed by the IUCN, but overfishing, pollution, and impassable dams contribute to stock declines.

SIGNIFICANCE TO HUMANS

Harvested commercially and used as fresh, dried, or salted meat, bait for crab or lobsters, and sometimes as animal feed. Also serves as a forage base for other commercial or recreational fish stocks. In lakes, alewives can be a nuisance to humans. They may become so abundant that they clog industrial water intake pipes, and they often die off in massive events related to fluctuations in water temperature and dissolved oxygen.

For more information on alewife, visit Britannica.com.

Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The noun has 2 meanings:

Meaning #1: flesh of shad-like fish abundant along the Atlantic coast or in coastal streams

Meaning #2: shad-like food fish that runs rivers to spawn; often salted or smoked; sometimes placed in genus Pomolobus
  Synonyms: Alosa pseudoharengus, Pomolobus pseudoharengus

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