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Ice age arctic adventure9/26/2023 Maine Public Christina Murphy, of the USGS Maine Cooperative Research Wildlife Unit, is working with University of Maine professor Michael Kinnison to study how climate could affect the feeding habits of Maine's Arctic charr. "So, in the process of the birds trying to get fish out of the net, they rip big holes into it, and it lets the fish out.” “Ah, that’s why we didn’t have many fish," he says. And then he inspects the net and discovers why. At first, Erdman is surprised that there’s only one other charr in the net. So it’s ideal for this decades-long study of this unusual species.Įrdman puts the fish in a water-filled cooler to transport it to a makeshift lab on shore where it will be weighed and measured. Other populations around New England have disappeared following introductions of non-native fish, which likely preyed on the charr, or competed with them for food and habitat.īut this pond has no non-native fish, and the habitat is protected by the Bangor Water District, which uses it as a water supply. Floods Pond is one of 12 lakes and ponds in Maine with remnant populations of charr. "And slowly, as the glaciers retreated, it filled in those depressions in the land, and they became lakes, and those Arctic charr were just chasing the glaciers as they left.”Īs the glaciers left and the rivers warmed, some of the charr hunkered down in deep lakes with cold water, and have persisted here for millennia. ![]() “Maine was covered in ice, if you go back to the last glacial maximum," Erdman says. ![]() As temperatures warm with climate change, fish-eating birds are staying on the pond later in the fall. Maine Public Brad Erdman from the University of Maine repairs a net after a loon or cormorant tore a hole in it.
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