Maine
Bill aims to prevent invasive species from bypassing 2 eastern Maine dams
The unlawful introduction of invasive species poses a critical risk to the well being of current native fish populations in Maine’s lakes and rivers.
In some locations, illegally positioned fish equivalent to northern pike have worn out current populations of coldwater sport fish, overtaking the lakes the place they had been launched, and have rapidly unfold to adjoining waters.
Ensuring that doesn’t occur in among the state’s most prized landlocked salmon and brook trout fisheries within the Penobscot River watershed is the goal of LD 1049.
The intent of the invoice, sponsored by Sen. Russell Black, R-Wilton, is to amend current legal guidelines to stop the long run set up of a fishway on the Penobscot River dam in Medway and the removing of the four-foot barrier on the Brown’s Mill Dam on the Piscataquis River in Dover-Foxcroft. Fishways are channels constructed into or alongside dams that permit fish to maneuver previous the dam and into the river above.
Proponents of the invoice wish to be certain that northern pike and different invasive fish can’t make their manner farther upstream into prime salmon and trout habitat.
“Merely put, if someday sooner or later fish passage is supplied on the Medway Dam all the West Department of the Penobscot River can be in danger for invasion by Northern pike,” Nels Kramer, a former 36-year biologist with DIF&W, stated in what will likely be his testimony earlier than the Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife when it holds a public listening to on the invoice.
Baxter State Park is also positioned throughout the watershed of the West Department of the Penobscot River, making the difficulty much more essential, he stated.
“A number of the greatest fishing for landlocked salmon within the State of Maine happens within the West Department, and all of the lakes related to that storied drainage, together with Pemadumcook Lake, North and South Twin Lakes, Ambajejus Lake, Millinocket Lake, First Debsconeag, and all of the JoMary Lakes,” Kramer stated.
Issues about invasive fish motion had been magnified on account of discussions stemming from the relicensing course of being carried out by the Federal Vitality Regulatory Fee on dams alongside the West Department of the Penobscot.
Kramer stated it has been recommended that passages be put in on the dams, or that among the dams be eliminated, to facilitate the upstream passage of alewives and shad. He pressured that there is no such thing as a Atlantic salmon Important Habitat, as outlined by the Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, above the Medway Dam, which is the final line of protection stopping pike, white catfish and different invasives from getting upriver.
He additionally famous that if all boundaries are eliminated on the Piscataquis in Dover-Foxcroft and Guilford, invasive species will decimate the wild native brook trout populations within the higher Piscataquis River and can permit them to get precariously near Moosehead Lake.
In 2003, illegally launched Northern pike had been found in Pushaw Lake, positioned simply north of Bangor. The voracious predators have already made their manner into the adjoining Stillwater and Penobscot rivers.
Pike have been documented transferring via the fishway on the dam in Milford and now have entry all the best way to Medway on the Penobscot, and to Dover-Foxcroft on the Piscataquis.
Efforts by the Penobscot River Restoration Challenge, which beforehand eliminated a number of dams and boundaries on the Penobscot, included the addition of a fish passage channel on the dam in Howland. These initiatives, designed to revive upriver entry to native sea-run fish, with a give attention to the endangered Atlantic salmon, sea herring and shad, additionally opened the door to invasive species.
The dams at Medway on the Penobscot River and Brown’s Mill on the Piscataquis River are the final remaining boundaries to stop pike from getting access to essential fisheries habitat. These embrace salmon and trout waters within the Millinocket area, and Sebec and Schoodic lakes on the Piscataquis.
Sebec is one in every of Maine’s 4 authentic landlocked salmon lakes.
LD 1049 has been referred to the Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which is predicted to carry a listening to on the invoice throughout which it should hear public feedback.