Maine: Piscataquis County

AUGUSTA, Maine — A plan to reopen river habitat to Atlantic salmon and other sea-run fish could enable an invasive species to infiltrate a prized fishery, biologists and anglers told Maine legislators Tuesday.

Northern pike, a non-native species that preys on such fish as salmon and trout, could decimate the Piscataquis River watershed, said retired fisheries biologist Paul Johnson.

Johnson told the Fisheries and Wildlife Committee that inland pike, which have been introduced illegally into Pushaw Lake north of Bangor, could swim downstream to the Penobscot River. From there, they could make their way upstream and north to Howland, where the Piscataquis is blocked from the Penobscot by a dam.