GREENVILLE – The catch-and-kill fishing rule that has been proposed by fishermen in the Moosehead Lake region met with no opposition at a public meeting Thursday evening. It also met with little support. But the rule’s supporters were satisfied.

As less than 30 area anglers filed out of Nickerson Elementary School past Ed Courtenay, the Moosehead Lake Fisheries Coalition vice president said the group’s effort to force the state to deal with illegally stocked fish will only gain momentum. Even if the rule mandating that anglers kill non-native fish that are illegally stocked is not adopted, people will continue to push for it.

“This created discussion,” Courtenay said. “The issue is pertinent. [The Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife] won’t look at the extinction of [native] fish. Illegally stocking fish is an epidemic around the state.”

The public hearing was held by DIF&W Commissioner Lee Perry because the Moosehead Coalition presented him with a petition with at least 150 names. It asked for four new fishing regulations on Moosehead Lake, including one that would require fishermen not to release alive any white perch, yellow perch or bass, which are not native to the lake. The rule would be unprecedented.

The complaint of fishermen from Ellsworth to Greenville is that illegally introduced fish such as bass are robbing forage from native game fish such as landlocked salmon and brook trout.

Courtenay said close to 300 people signed the petition, but, in the end, fewer than 30 people showed for the meeting, and only three members of the Moosehead Lake Fisheries Coalition spoke.

The coalition also proposed increasing the minimum length of brook trout from 12 to 14 inches to help the fish’s population; to increase the minimum length of landlocked salmon from 14 to 16 inches; and to increase the bag limit on lake trout, or togue, from three to five fish, in order to conserve forage for other fish.

The proposed rules are expected to be considered by Perry and voted on by his Advisory Council by the end of the month. Public comments will be accepted until Sept. 14.

Courtenay said if the proposed rule changes on Moosehead Lake are not adopted, the coalition and the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, of which he is a member, will bring the case to the Legislature.

”The state can’t continue to pull an ostrich,” Courtenay said. “The [fishing reports] they put out, every week there is something else they’ve found, some other illegal fish. The fishing public that cares is saying they’re running out of water [for native fish].”

While biologists cannot comment at public hearings on regulations proposed by the public, officials within DIF&W have said it would be difficult to force people by law to kill fish.

At a public hearing in Ellsworth in June, many of the 60 in the audience made the same claim about a proposed catch-and-kill rule aimed at bass on Hancock County’s Beech Hill, Molasses and Round ponds.

Courtenay pointed to the fact that on the DIF&W Web site, on the fishing reports, it states that last week a routine inspection of a pond in southern Maine uncovered two new species of fish – black crappies and bluegills – which had been illegally stocked. The Web site states that illegal introductions are happening in southern Maine at “an alarming rate.”

Currently, DIF&W has no policy to deal with illegally stocked fish. Courtenay said the Moosehead meeting and subsequent public hearings where the issue will be raised will help keep the topic issue in the forefront.

Deirdre Fleming covers outdoor sports and recreation for the NEWS. She can be reached at 990-8250 or at dfleming@bangordailynews.net.