DIFW Fisheries Biologist Wes Ashe recently reported on an illegal introduction of invasive Bluegills. Here’s some info from his report:

Bluegill don’t belong in Maine waters, and despite their small size and unintimidating features, they are highly invasive. The next summer, biologists returned to the Sheepscot River to get a better handle on the distribution of bluegill in the watershed. What we discovered was alarming. Bluegill were collected and abundant in Turner Mills Pond (Somerville), Long Pond (Windsor), and Sheepscot Pond (Palermo).

In Sheepscot Pond, a deep, oligotrophic water home to wild lake trout, salmon, and stocked brook trout, biologists were shocked at the findings. In just a few hundred yards of habitat, dozens of bluegill of all ages and sizes were amassed. We have no idea when or where the Sheepscot bluegill populations originated. We know it was done intentionally or through negligence, illegally, and many years ago.

You can read his entire report here:

https://www1.maine.gov/wordpress/insideifw/2020/05/19/an-undetected-fish-invasion/