A fish habitat survey project in Maine is still looking for volunteers this season to take notes on native brook trout and their habitat.
“You are signing up for an adventure because you do not know what you’re going to find,” says Emily Bastian who coordinates the Maine Brook Trout Survey — a partnership between Maine Audubon, Trout Unlimited and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
According to Trout Unlimted, Maine — which has more than 6,000 lakes and ponds — is thought to contain more than 97 percent of the remaining brook trout ponds in the country. Bastian says it’s the only state in the lower 48 where new populations of the native fish are still being discovered.
Volunteers who sign up to survey the more remote streams and ponds will be heading into uncharted waters.
“These are literally dots on a map. We have never collected data on these ponds before — they’re complete unknowns, they’ve never been stocked before,” Bastian says.
She says volunteers will collect data on naturally sustaining, native brook trout and their habitat as well as keeping an eye out for sea-run brook trout, known as salters.
Over the last five years, volunteers have surveyed 380 new ponds and observed signs of trout in about a third of those. Bastian says the ultimate goal is to identify all the places where the trout live in a natural state so the pond can be protected with a heritage designation, which would regulate how anglers can catch the fish and would prohibit activities such as stocking.
The ideal time to survey the fish is between April and June.
To volunteer, contact Emily Bastian at ebastian@maineaudubon.org. For information about the survey, visit Maine Audubon or Trout Unlimited.
