Bob Mallard, the national vice chair of the Native Trout Coalition, said he looks forward to continuing the organization’s work for native fish in Maine in 2019. In 2018 the group posted signs on more than 125 “State Heritage Fish” waters, letting anglers know about special rules in place to protect trout and charr.
“We believe that the current situation regarding the use of live fish as bait in and around self-sustaining salmonid waters is a tenuous one,” Mallard wrote in an email. “The fact that anglers can move live fish around is problematic at best. Species misidentification, water misidentification, accidental release, out-migration into secondary sources, nonnative fish introduction, disease introduction, etc., all come into play and must be looked at if we are to have any chance of preserving Maine’s wild native salmonid resources for the generations to come.”
