Douglas Watts photos.
This photograph shows a newly emerged baby Sebago salmon in its
hiding and feeding spot underneath a log in the Eel Weir reach of the Presumpscot
River just below the outlet of Sebago Lake on May 22, 2001. This baby salmon
is approx. 1 inch long. Baby salmon emerge from their gravel nests in the
upper Presumpscot in mid to late May. They emerge at night to avoid predators
and by daylight begin establishing home territories to feed and find shelter.
In the first few days after their emergence, salmon "fry" (the
earliest stream life stage of salmon) can be seen very close to the river
bank around or downstream from the gravel nests (redds) where their parents
deposited their eggs the previous fall. As the fry grow, they begin to disperse
more widely in the stream and are more difficult to observe.
Typical Sebago salmon juvenile habitat in the free-flowing Eel Weir
reach of the upper Presumpscot River in Standish, Maine. Newly emerged salmon
fry were visible throughout this area, especially along the shore and beside
boulders, during May 2001. This stretch of the river was dry for nearly
a century due to the diversion of the river through a power canal to the
Eel Weir dam powerhouse a mile downstream. The stream bed was rewatered
in 1992 after a long and bitter struggle between anglers, state and federal
fisheries agencies and the S.D. Warren paper company (now SAPPI). S.D. Warren
strongly opposed any requirement to put water back in the riverbed. In 1992,
the company lost its case at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and
was required to restore flows to the river.
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