Whither Maine Char?

Little is known about those populations. And in Green Lake, where alien lake trout are being stocked on top of Arctic char, it seems the department wants to keep it that way.

“They don’t really want to know too much about how the two species interact,” remarks Dr. Kinnison.

Interestingly enough, char co-evolved with smelts and landlocked salmon in Green Lake, so they’ve done well with both. Maybe they can also tolerate lake trout over the long haul. And maybe they cannot.

Other than reclaiming Big Reed and Wadleigh and keeping hatchery lake trout out of Green Lake, there’s not a lot the department can do to “manage” Arctic char. But there are a few things it can do to engage the public.

Except in Floods Pond, off limits to all angling because it’s a public water supply, char count toward your brook-trout limit. The physical difference between a brookie and an Arctic char is striking; but the assumption has been that Maine anglers can’t distinguish between the two species. If that’s not true, it’s a gross insult; and if it is true, the department needs to crank up its education effort. It is far more difficult, for example, to distinguish a hen mallard from a black duck or a landlocked salmon from a brown trout, but sportsmen who can’t tell the difference run the risk of getting busted.

Char are deepwater fish, difficult to catch on flies or lures, and most anglers ignore them for the far more accessible and generally larger brook trout. Roland Martin, commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, may have it right when he proclaims that no-kill and artificial-lures-only regs for Arctic char are “not biologically necessary.” But there’s a sociological necessity. Clinging to the old regulations sends the wrong message, leading the public to believe that these fish are mere evolutionary curiosities rather than beautiful, unique jewels desperately endangered by alien-fish introductions and global warming.

By the same token, it’s doubtful that the char of Bald Mountain Pond are much threatened by the hatchery brook trout the department superimposes on them. Maine char and brook trout co-evolved, and hybridization has never been a threat. On the other hand, there’s always the danger of introducing pathogens and parasites; and, again, dumping rubber trout on top of one of only a dozen native char ponds left in the contiguous states sends the wrong message.

Chastened by Trout Unlimited on these issues, the Maine department is feeling increasingly unloved and unappreciated. For example, on July 9, 2008, Commissioner Martin offered this response to Sean McCormick, then chair of Maine’s TU Council: “I am writing to you a second time regarding your letter of May 29, 2008 in which you refer to ‘the department’s failure to demonstrate a serious institutional commitment to the protection or restoration of native blueback[s]….’ You apparently do not realize or have chosen to ignore the department’s long standing commitment to managing the state’s wild and native Arctic char…. We are at a loss to determine why the Maine State TU Council finds it necessary to attack the motives and belittle the efforts of the professional fishery scientists responsible for protecting the very fishery resources that the Maine Council of Trout Unlimited claims to cherish.” If Commissioner Martin is as committed to char management as he claims, he needs to be more statesmanlike in his communications with the fish’s major ally. And TU needs to channel some of its angst away from the department and toward the Maine legislature, whose Joint Standing Committee on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has blocked a bill “to recognize and protect the Arctic char as one of Maine’s Heritage Fish.”

Ponds containing heritage fish can’t be stocked and can’t have a history of being stocked. In following the letter of the law the department went to a silly extreme when it recommended that Floods Pond, Rainbow Lake and Black Lake be stricken from its proposed list of 10 heritage char waters merely because stocked brook trout might migrate into them. But at least it was okay with seven heritage waters. So far the legislature—kowtowing to hook-and-cook, rubber-fish enthusiasts among its constituents and in its own ranks—is not.

I see only one hope for Maine’s relict Arctic char, and that’s the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Under the Bush administration ESA protection would have been impossible. Under Obama, it’s a tough sell—mostly because there is an ugly, backward element in Maine that fears and hates federal agencies and federal laws.