The Maine Department of Marine Resources is asking smelt fishermen and anyone else interested in rebuilding this fishery to help the state take an important step toward that goal by participating in the Volunteer Smelt Fishing Logbook program.

“The program is quite simple,” said DMR Scientist Claire Enterline, who manages the fishery. “Volunteer anglers will receive a logbook in which they record information about fish harvested or released during each trip for themselves and any fishing companions. Anglers will record information about each trip, including time spent fishing or performing a survey, location, number of anglers, lengths of fish, and other species caught.

“People who don’t fish but are interested in helping to restore smelt populations can also use the logbook to document the strength of spawning runs in the spring,” said Enterline.

Volunteers are asked to visit streams, including those closed to fishing, during the day or night and record information about the number of adult smelt present or the amount of smelt eggs deposited on the streambed.

At the end of the season each volunteer is asked to mail the logbook to the department, which then copies and sends the logbook back to the volunteer for his or her records.

“We have increased our efforts to monitor smelt populations in recent years, and adding volunteers will help us continue to improve our data gathering efforts,” said Enterline. “DMR field biologists are able to see only a limited percentage of the fish that are caught, and we are not able to visit all the spawning streams in the spring. To help us gain a better understanding of populations along the entire coast, we encourage volunteers to help with data collection.”

Recent Department surveys have shown that smelt populations are declining in many portions of Maine, particularly in the southern part of the coast. This decline in population along with documented declines in size prompted the department to close the fishery through emergency rule from Stonington to the New Hampshire border this past spring.

Additional measures have been proposed by the department to build on last spring’s emergency rule and will take effect upon approval of the DMR Advisory Council in late January or early February. The proposed regulation would create three zones with unique management approaches that address the varying status of the fishery in different portions of the coast.

As a result of public comment, proposed possession limits would not take effect until Dec. 1, 2015.

People who are interested in participating in the Volunteer Smelt Fishing Logbook program can find information at www.maine.gov/dmr/smelt/logbook.htm. To sign up, email Chris Uraneck at chris.b.uraneck@maine.gov.

For more information, call Chris Uraneck 207-633-9526 or Claire Enterline 207-624-6341.