State officials mounted a major campaign last summer to educate boaters about the dangers of spreading the invasive water plant milfoil and other unwanted aquatic species from lake to lake in Maine [, July 2001], but it appears they are just now becoming aware of a less-obvious method for the plant to gain a foothold in new territory. Ice fishermen often snag water plants with their hooks and bait traps, and failure to properly clean the fragments of cold but viable greenery from their gear before moving to a new, uncontaminated water body can give milfoil a new lease on life as well as a new and unwelcome home in Maine.

“The big focus of our effort last year was on boaters,” allows John McPhedran, who runs the milfoil education and awareness effort at the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. “It’s odd, but I was just talking with a coworker yesterday about ice fishing and milfoil. Ice fishermen and bait dealers are definitely areas we have to address.”

Fourteen water bodies in the state are known to be infested with variable milfoil, which grows rapidly and chokes out native water plants as well as makes boating and swimming impossible. Last year Maine became serious about the potential problems invasive plants such as milfoil can cause, with the legislature passing a bill requiring all motorized watercraft on freshwater lakes and rivers in the state to carry a sticker — ten dollars for residents, twenty dollars for our-of-state boats — to underwrite efforts to prevent the spread of invasive aquatic species. But the potential problems posed by ice fishing have gone largely unrecognized.

All that’s needed is a small fragment of the plant to establish itself on the bottom of a water body. “If someone ice fishes on Messalonskee Lake, which we know is infested, and then the next day goes to one of the Belgrade Lakes, which aren’t infested yet, without cleaning off his gear first, well, there’s a potential risk,” says McPhedran, although he is the first to admit that the level of risk is unknown. “If it’s cold enough after they’re removed from the water, the plant tissues would freeze and die,” he notes.

McPhedran’s office doesn’t have a formal campaign planned, “but this issue may be worth getting more information out to people in the winter,” he says. In the meantime, Maine ice fishermen might want to be extra careful that their gear is greenery-free before they put it to use.

(Published March 2002)