To many, the concept of Atlantic salmon restoration is purely theoretical, the details of which are confusing, confounding, and (some might assert) perhaps impossible.

To others – like Richard Dill – salmon recovery is eminently tangible, despite its theoretical challenges.

On Friday morning, Dill and his co-workers were in their familiar spots on the front line of the state’s salmon recovery efforts: standing on a barge halfway across the Penobscot River, tethered to a cable to thwart the current, transferring fish from the Veazie Dam trap to a water-filled bin on their boat.

Dill is a biologist for the Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission. On Friday, he was joined by fellow staffers Kevin Dunham, Kevin Gallant, and Chris Standley.

On a calm, overcast morning, with a bin-full of salmon finning nearby, Dill admitted that the hands-on nature of his job makes it enjoyable.

“It’s kind of hard to call it work sometimes,” Dill said. “We get to come out and we get to work with 10-pound Atlantic salmon fresh from the sea, so we definitely enjoy our jobs and figure there are a lot worse things we could be doing.”

With the prospect of an Atlantic salmon season on the Penobscot looming – the ASC will vote on a regulation on June 22 that would open the river this fall for the first time in seven years – Dill and his co-workers are enthused with what they’ve seen thus far.

On Friday morning, 16 salmon were captured. Since May 2, when the fish trap was activated, 175 salmon have been caught.

In May alone, nearly 150 fish were captured, which is encouraging.

“Usually in the month of May, in past years, if we get 50 fish, that’s a good May,” Dill said. “We’re hoping that’s an indication that we’re going to have a really strong run this year.”

Dill knows, however, that the salmon run could peter out at any time. That makes every successive day of high trap counts important.

“We’ve had years when in mid-June, the run has slowed down on us for any number of reasons, and we’re not sure why,” he said.

That uncertainty is a big reason why nearly all of the fish that are caught in the Penobscot in the early part of the run are quickly “worked up,” then put on a truck bound for Orland and the Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery.

Those early fish are destined to become brood stock for a substantial portion of the next generation of Penobscot returnees. And making sure there are enough breeding fish in the hatchery is a major concern.

“We keep 600 fish for brood stock – 400 females and 200 males,” Dill said. “We take them as they come because we never know when the run might stop in any particular year. So right now we’re taking most every fish we get, although we do like to release a few fish sporadically throughout the week just so that we do have portion of the run that is heading upriver in any given week.”

Last year, 985 fish were counted at the Veazie trap, but early monitoring was impossible because of high water conditions. The total trap count in Veazie for the years since the 1999 closure of Maine’s river to angling: 2004: 1,323; 2003: 1,114; 2002: 779; 2001: 786; 2000: 535.

After the fish are captured, the ASC crew motors the barge back to the Veazie side of the river and begins performing a number of scientific tasks before transferring fish to the waiting trucks.

One worker grabs a fish by the tail and quickly checks its fins for wear, ascertains its gender, measures it, and injects an identifying tag that can be scanned by fisheries personnel if the salmon is captured again. Scale samples are taken, and a fin is punctured with a hole-punch to collect DNA data.

Another worker collects the scales and fin sample, while a third writes pertinent data in a notebook.

A fourth, the runner, waits until the fish – encased in a rubber sleeve filled with water – is handed to him so that he can run to the truck and put the salmon in a tank.

The ballet of men who have tagged thousands of fish looks simple … until, of course, they step aside and let a rookie try his hand at grabbing a 10-pound salmon by the tail and performing the needed tasks.

Then, reality strikes. The fish is big. It’s strong. And even a fish that’s calm at one moment may decide to thrash and splash and make testing impossible at any moment.

I “work up” two fish in about the time it takes the rest of the crew to process the other 14.

And at noon, they’ll all be back at the trap – just like they are twice a day from May until November – to see how many more fish have arrived, and to repeat all the necessary tests.

“Ten or 12 hour days are not uncommon,” Dill said. The motto on this crew is ‘The fish come first,’ and that wasn’t anything that we made up. That’s been going on for 30 years out here.”

On the front line of salmon restoration, that’s the way it should be, Dill figures.

“If the fish are here, we’re gonna be here,” he said.

Fine time to fish for free

If you don’t get a chance to fish very often and haven’t bothered to buy a license yet, this weekend you’ll still get the chance to enjoy some time on or in the water … and you won’t have to pay a penny.

Traditionally the state sponsors a free-fishing weekend that corresponds with Father’s Day. This year, it’s being held today and Sunday instead.

Here’s the deal: As long as you haven’t had your fishing license revoked or suspended, you’re welcome to fish for free all weekend long.

All other fishing regulations do apply, however.

Two free-fishing weekends are held in Maine each year. The second occurs during ice-fishing season, and takes place on the Saturday and Sunday before Presidents Day.

So have fun. Go fishing. And do yourself (and others) a favor: Take a kid or two with you.

Moose lottery approaches

One of the state’s more off-beat customs has to be the annual moose-permit lottery drawing, during which folks from far and wide flock to a meeting hall, sit for hours, and listen as thousands of names are read aloud.

If that doesn’t sound like your idea of fun, you’re likely not a prospective moose hunter.

And if it does … well … good luck to you.

This year’s lottery will be held on June 15 at the Scarborough Downs clubhouse in Scarborough. Names will be drawn beginning at 5:30 p.m.

The drawing, often referred to as simply “the moose lottery,” was originally held in Augusta, where the state Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife has its headquarters.

Beginning in 1999, however, the moose lottery turned into a road show of sorts, and has rotated through locations around the state.

Many state legislators try to bring the lottery to their home districts, and the event has been a hit everywhere it has been held.

Previous lotteries have been held in Millinocket, Wiscasset, Old Town, Bucksport, Scarborough, Presque Isle and Rumford.

Food and beverages are generally sold, and a few hundred applicants usually show up to find out if this is their lucky year … finally.

This year, 2,895 names will be drawn in the random lottery. A year ago, more than 70,000 people applied for a chance to hunt moose in Maine.

Admission for the event is free, and past lotteries have lasted from three to four hours, according to the DIF&W.

Good luck!

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.