Maine's Pike Problem

Tackling Maine's pike problem
State biologists hope a catch-and-kill rule will help eliminate the non-native species.
By Deirdre Fleming dfleming@mainetoday.com
Staff Writer


OLD TOWN - Three hours in the hot sun and two dozen young pickerel to show for it.

The electro-fishing boat effort two weeks ago was intended to help determine where the northern pike are in Pushaw Stream, which flows into Pushaw Lake.

Northern pike were first reported in Pushaw Lake in 2003. Every year since 2006, the lake has been netted in the spring, when the fish are spawning, and all the northern pike captured are killed.

This spring, a total of 78 northern pike were killed in an effort to thwart this non-native fish, which can eat a landlocked salmon whole. State biologists feel the time has come for serious measures.

A proposal has gone to the Maine Attorney General's office to allow for a catch-and-kill regulation in the Penobscot River drainage. If the Attorney General considers the law reasonable, it will continue to the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife's rule-making committee, the IFW Advisory Council.

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