By Doug Fletcher,Staff Writer

FAYETTE – State fisheries biologists say the presence of voracious northern pike in Mosher Pond could have far-reaching implications, possibly wiping out trout and other game fish over a large area of Maine.

Mosher, a roadside pond, is a small headwater for Little Norridgewock Stream. Through Little Norridgewock and other streams, the pike could invade more than a half-dozen nearby ponds. Eventually, biologists say, the species will likely make its way to the Sandy River.

“From the Sandy River, pike will of course have access to the entire Kennebec River below Madison,” said Dave Boucher, an assistant regional fisheries biologist from Strong.

He fears the pike, which are often at the top of the food chain and gorge on native species, will raise havoc with the brown and rainbow trout fisheries supported by the Kennebec and its tailwaters.

Once in the Sandy, pike could also migrate upriver, making their way into prime fishing waters in the western foothills. Only Smalls Falls would halt their spread to the Rangeley Lakes area, Boucher noted.

Ponds threatened

In the immediate area, they threaten sport fishing for largemouth bass, white perch and other species in Norcross, North, Parker, Locke, Sand, Crowell and Fellows ponds, he said. Each of the waters is linked back to Mosher by the Little Norridgewock, Wilson or McGurdy streams.

The state’s Chesterville Bog wildlife management area is also only slightly downstream from Mosher.

Biologist Bobby Van-Riper confirmed the presence of northern pike at Mosher Pond about two weeks ago.

“This is the latest in what appears to be a continuing story of disappointing news where pike are being caught in waters where they formerly weren’t found,” Van-Riper noted in his report on the discovery.

“Once they have found their way into a body of water, eradication is almost impossible,” he added.

People have been illegally stocking northern pike in Maine ponds for years because the fish are known as fighters once hooked. They grow to 40 inches and more in length. Their weight can top 20 pounds.

The pike aren’t native to the state, however; their nearest home waters are in the Lake Champlain region.

Van-Riper called pike “an opportunistic carnivore, meaning that it will eat virtually anything that will fit into its mouth.”

A 16-inch long salmon was found in the gut of one northern pike taken from another lake in Maine, said Mark Latti, spokesman for the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

“When (pike) got into Long Pond in the Belgrade Lakes,” he said, “they decimated the salmon fishery.”

Latti called the illegal introduction of northern pike into Maine waters “a growing problem.”

$10,000 fine

So much so that IF&W convinced the Legislature two years ago to increase the penalty for such illegal stockings. Now, if someone is convicted of putting nonnative species of fish into the state’s waterways, that person faces up to a $10,000 fine.

The state’s anti-poaching hot line program, 800-ALERT-US, offers up to a $2,000 reward for information resulting in the conviction of people who illegally stock pike.

“Illegal stockings are among the foulest of fish and game violations,” noted Boucher, “and the ecological consequences of this practice warrants the attention of all conservation-mined people.”

Van-Riper called the practice “insidious.”

He referred to the illegal stockings as “bucket biology.”

“The misguided individual who utilizes this method is selfish, in that he or she is making a one-person minority decision to enhance their personal fishing desires at the cost of the fishery as a whole,” Van-Riper wrote in is report on the Mosher Pond pike find.

“These are not sportsmen and women; they couldn’t care less about the fishing of others,” he added.

Latti said that sometimes biologists can reclaim a pond that’s been illegally stocked. That’s not possible in Mosher’s situation, however, due to the Little Norridgewock Stream outlet.

Van-Riper said he’s encouraging fishermen in the Mosher area to catch and kill as many pike as they can.

Boucher said he fears that the Mosher pike will provide a new source of the fish for other illegal stockers. And it’s likely, he also said, that the pike will result in altering the biodiversity of the entire watershed.

They’ll eat native minnows, sunfish and yellow perch, species that many people don’t care about, but ones that are vital to the localized ecology, Boucher said.

Van-Riper urged people to act as eyes and ears for state, watching for illegal wildlife activities, such as the pike stocking at Mosher.

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