PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • October 27, 2025
While bucket biology is a huge problem, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
(MDIFW) moves non-native fish around regularly and has for generations. Although no one talks about it, these legal acts have negatively affected wild native fish in the same ways that illegal bucket biology has. Consider the state-sponsored introduction of non-native landlocked salmon and smelt into the
Rangeley Lakes, which contributed to the demise of the largest native Arctic charr population in
the contiguous United States. And it was the state that introduced non-native lake trout into Sebago Lake, one of only four native landlocked salmon waters in the state. Nobody wins when we move fish around. By doing what it is telling the public not to do, MDIFW is sending mixed messages. ~ Bob Mallard, Registered Maine Fishing Guide, author and executive director of the Native Fish Coalition