Maine's Brook Trout Pond Survey: Transforming Anglers Into Citizen Scientists

A recent Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture (EBTJV) assessment found that Maine maintains 97 percent of the intact, lentic Eastern brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) habitat in the country. With approximately 6000 lakes and ponds statewide, hundreds of mostly remote ponds have never been formally surveyed by fisheries biologists. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) places a high importance on surveying these waters for attaining appropriate wild brook trout management and conservation objectives.  To address this need for data collection, Maine Audubon (MA), Trout Unlimited (TU) and MDIFW partnered to implement the Brook Trout Pond Survey (Survey). The program's goal is to identify wild brook trout populations in unsurveyed Maine ponds using a three-step process:  (1) Use existing knowledge from anglers and biologists to identify priority ponds to survey; (2) Recruit anglers to visit ponds and document evidence of brook trout or angling; and (3) Use information from the angler survey to prioritize ponds for formal survey by MDIFW biologists.  Anglers surveyed 95 ponds in 2011 and as a result, 43 ponds were recommended for formal surveys by biologists in 2012.   Information collected by anglers, verified by biologists, will be used in future fisheries management decisions.