Fisheries Division Receives National Award Recognizing Arctic Charr Restoration
Last week, our Fisheries Division received national attention for their work restoring native Arctic Charr to Big Reed Pond in northern Piscataquis county.
Joe Larscheid of the American Sport Fish Society presents the Sport Fish Restoration Outstanding Project award to Regional Fisheries Biologist Frank Frost
The American Fisheries Society presented fisheries biologist Frank Frost with their Sport Fish Restoration Outstanding Project award in recognition of the Arctic charr restoration project on Big Reed Pond.
The annual Sport Fish Restoration outstanding project award is given by the American Fisheries Society highlights the importance and effectiveness of the Sport Fish Restoration program and recognizes excellence in fisheries management, research and education.
Arctic charr are a unique resource occurring only in Maine within the continental United States. They became perilously close to disappearing from one of the last remaining ponds in Maine. We are proud to say that the work completed to reclaim Big Reed Pond has restored the charr population, which was confirmed late last spring by our fisheries biologists who documented wild, naturally-reproducing Arctic charr.
Arctic charr are found in only 14 waters in Maine. They prefer deep, cold lakes that lie at high elevation and have few other competing species. An illegal introduction of rainbow smelt at Big Reed Pond upset that delicate balance and threatened the charr population. While native to the state, smelt are invasive to many waters where they do not occur naturally and if illegally introduced can wreak havoc on the natural ecosystem.
Knowing extraordinary measures were needed to protect the charr, beginning in 2007, MDIFW fisheries biologists began an intensive effort to capture some of the remaining live charr. For the next four years, biologists used nets to capture and transfer 14 charr from Big Reed Pond to the Mountain Springs Trout Farm in Frenchville, Maine. These fourteen charr became the breeding stock utilized to restore the genetic population unique to Big Reed Pond.
However, before Big Reed could be restocked with native charr fingerlings, the smelt had to be removed.
MDIFW staff, along with a group of partners, reclaimed the pond with rotenone in October 2010, eliminating the competing smelt population. Rotenone is a plant-based product that affects the ability of fish to use oxygen in the water and it breaks down rapidly in the environment. Reclamation is a long-time fishery management practice employed around the country that is used sparingly in Maine, and only in waters that meet specific criteria. Maine IFW uses this tool to restore native brook trout and charr populations, and to eradicate invasive threats. The Department places a priority on the conservation and protection of native and wild fisheries.
Arctic Charr, bred from the remaining 14 charr that were transferred to Mountain Springs Trout Farm, were first stocked in Big Reed starting in June 2011 and continued through June 2013. In June of 2017, MDIFW biologists confirmed that charr are indeed spawning, identifying three different age classes through the magnified examination of captured charr fish scales, which confirmed three successful spawning seasons in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
It’s important to note that this reclamation project had an amazing array of partners. Without the support of each of them, successful restoration of charr at Big Reed would not have been possible. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife partnered with The Nature Conservancy, The Bradford Camps, Mountain Springs Trout Farm, and The University of Maine to complete the project. The Presque Isle High School Aquaculture Facility and the Maine Army Aviation Support facility in Bangor provided significant volunteer assistance. The Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund provided financial support in three separate grants to help support the hatchery efforts. US Fish and Wildlife Service Sportfish Restoration Funds were critical to this restoration project, as well as most other freshwater fisheries management and conservation efforts by the MDIFW.
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