Saving the last of the brook trout

Saving the last of the brook trout

As fish go, brookies are just about the prettiest of the freshwater species: Full of color and covered with squiggly lines that look so much like worms that they're called "vermiculations." They've got flashes of iridescence on their sides and red spots outlined in blue sprinkled along their bodies as well. The singular feature of a brook trout is the ivory-colored edge along the front of their lower fins -- they're like white headlights that announce, unequivocally, that you've caught one of the most highly prized landlocked fish of the eastern United States.

Brook trout are the only trout native to the region, which they have inhabited for millenia; before Colonial settlement, the fish were found in nearly every coldwater river and stream in the East.

A research consortium has recently looked at the state of brook trout populations throughout the East -- and there's good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the fish's native habitat is now the most densely settled and industrialized region in the United States. Brook trout survive only in the cleanest and coldest water, and the degradation of their habitat by intense development -- which pollutes streams and raises their temperature by removing adjacent trees -- has meant that there are now intact populations of the fish in only five percent of their historic range. Wild stream populations of brook trout have vanished, or are close to vanishing, in nearly half of the subwatersheds studied by the team.

But Maine has been lucky, and that is the good news. According to the study, Maine's waters are the "last true stronghold" for brook trout in the eastern U.S.

With that good fortune comes responsibility.

This is what we know about Maine's brook trout: We are the only state to have intact populations of the fish in lakes and ponds, mostly found in northern and western Maine. But this is what we don't know: How the fish are faring in 64 percent of the rivers and streams which were historically their home, because we haven't surveyed those bodies of water.

This is not an academic question. Right now, we're assuming that brookies are OK in those unstudied waterways. As one state biologist said, assumptions are always cheaper than data. But with brook trout serving as a money-making backbone of our state's sizeable and important recreational angling industry, this is crucially uncharted territory. We need to find out what's happening to the fish throughout the state and then manage our resources to enhance our remaining populations. The threats from habitat degradation need to be stemmed; the introduction of non-native predatory species by bucket biologists needs to be stopped; and a plan for enhancing brook trout's access to native waters developed.

That's not the typical way fish management usually works -- or management of many of our native species. It's more the norm to start caring when our resources are on the edge, and it's too late.

So let's use a different model. Consider the survival of the native brook trout in Maine an economic development issue.

It's been extirpated in most of its historic range, so we can capitalize on all those brook trout fisherman anxious to hook a fish. Our hotels, motels, sporting camps, stores and services will all benefit.

For those who need a larger reason to make the effort, consider this: Do we want to be the last state in the region to preside over the disappearance of one of the most beautiful fish in our rivers?

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