Maine once had 50 fish hatcheries or feeding stations

fish hatchery 1926The latest edition of the newsletter of the Maine Historical Society contained a link to a very interesting story detailing the history of fish hatcheries in Maine. I was astonished to learn that between 1895 and 1956, the state operated about 50 hatcheries or feeding stations. Today, DIF&W operates just 6 hatcheries and two feeding stations, amd hatchery in Gray is now closed due to a water problem.

The story, written by Candace Kanes for the Maine Memory Network, reports that, “The state’s first fish hatchery was at Craig Brook in East Orland, started in 1871, and rebuilt in 1880. It became a National Fish Hatchery in 1889, dedicated to raising and stocking juvenile Atlantic salmon in Maine.

“The state was particularly interested in Atlantic salmon,” writes Kanes, “and operated other facilities around the state. In 1895 a new law allowed the Maine Commissioners of Fish and Game to purchase or lease land for fish hatcheries. They purchased the Caribou and Auburn hatcheries, concentrating until about 1900 on raising landlocked and Atlantic salmon, then adding several types of trout.”

Today DIF&W raises and stocks six different species of salmonids: brook trout, brown trout, rainbow trout, landlocked salmon, splake (a hybrid of brook trout and lake trout), and lake trout.

I was fascinated to learn, from Kanes, that the early hatcheries fed their fish ground beef livers and spleen, sheep organs, grasshoppers, and various types of fish as feed. “Beef liver continued as the main source of hatchery food until the 1950s when it was replaced by dry pellet food” she reports.

There’s a lot more fascinating information in Kanes article, which you can read here. And you can access the Historical Society’s entire newsletter here.

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.