NFC Executive Director Bob Mallard talks About the Landlocked Salmon of Sebago Lake
“Sebago Lake is home to the namesake population of landlocked salmon, Salmo salar sebago. These fish served as broodstock for many landlocked salmon introduced elsewhere. Interestingly, due to historic and ongoing stocking in Maine, it is possible that the only genetically pure and diverse Sebago-strain landlocked salmon left are outside Maine, and possibly outside the United States.”
A Sebago Lake landlocked salmon from the Crooked River. (Emily Bastian)
“The landlocked salmon is Maine’s official State Fish. It’s interesting that a species that is more likely to be nonnative than native when it is encountered is our state fish.”
“In 1972, DIF&W introduced nonnative lake trout to Sebago Lake. Between 1972 and 1982, more than 315,000 lake trout were stocked, resulting in a self-sustaining population of nonnative fish that compete with the native landlocked salmon. As the state-sponsored introduction of nonnative fish has done elsewhere, this forever changed the lake.”
