State officials in Maine are offering a hefty bounty for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the individual responsible for spreading an invasive fish to an important lake.
West Musquash Lake is a 1,600-acre cold-water lake in largely undeveloped lands in the Downeast region. The lake was largely untouched by humans and sustains several species of salmon, trout, and other angler favorites. Unfortunately, their future survival is now in jeopardy after an invasive largemouth bass was discovered in the lake.
Maine's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife stated the intruders are there to stay, "now that there is an established bass population in the water, bass will likely remain there forever and will compete with the salmonids for the same food and resources."
While there are largemouth bass in a lake 10 miles downstream, officials calculated they couldn't have made the journey naturally. Similarly, the possibility of a bird inadvertently carrying a fish or its eggs into the lake was deemed "highly unlikely." That leaves only one realistic possibility: They were deliberately introduced.
The largemouth bass is a popular fish for anglers nationwide. According to a profile by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the largemouth bass has a voracious appetite and feeds on a variety of prey from crustaceans to other fish. In the right environment, they're highly beneficial, but in West Musquash, they're a huge threat to the other fish.
The department is taking steps to manage the problem, such as encouraging fishers to target the bass and removing any bag or size limit on the bass. There's also an ongoing effort to raise awareness of the lasting consequences of one person's irresponsible actions.
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The department's social media post about the situation attracted hundreds of comments, with some discussing the already debunked theory that the bass came via birds.
One response made a pretty good suggestion for creating greater responsibility: "Maybe more education to school-age kids to develop an appreciation and understanding of the importance of native species would help?"
Another reader had a more short-term idea in mind: "Sounds like a future bass tournament, most buckets filled wins." That's actually quite similar to policies already in place in Tennessee and Maryland.
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