Catch and release

To the Editor;
Catch-and-release is an invaluable management tool. It’s the regulation that comes closest to allowing a fishery to be what it naturally is. Per the Department of Environmental Protection, Maine has nearly 6,050 lakes and ponds. Approximately 2,435 are listed on Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s lake and pond database, indicating they contain fish.

Other than seasonal restrictions to protect spawning fish, only 15, or 0.5 percent, are managed for C&R, one of which is due to a recent emergency reclamation. Another 17 have species-specific C&R regultations, one due to a recent reclamation. Eleven are associated with non-native bass, and three with nonnative brown trout.

Just 32 lakes and ponds, or less than 1.5 percent of the total recognized by IFW, have a full or partial C&R rule, two of which are temporary emergency restrictions. Out of roughly 1,500 lakes and ponds where brook trout are present, only 16, or just over 1 percent, are C&R on such. Of the countless rivers and streams in Maine, only seven sections are designated C&R. Another 11 have species-specific C&R regulations, several of which are to protect federally endangered Atlantic salmon from species misidentification.

The Aroostook River has a unique watershed-wide C&R restriction on landlocked salmon, possibly to protect Atlantic salmon. There are just 18 sections of river and stream, and some tributaries, with a full or species-specific C&R restriction. Based on these numbers, I believe my assertion that IFW does not fully embrace catch-and-release, as quoted by John Holyoke in a recent article, was fair.

Bob Mallard
Skowhegan