Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery

The sister hatchery to our hatchery (Green Lake) is Craig Brook NFH.  We visited CBNFH when we were volunteering in Maine in 2011 (See July 28, 2011 blog).

This hatchery is very different than Green Lake.  There is a visitor center with lots of exhibits and nice displays.  There is a boat launch and picnic area, nature trails, and an Atlantic salmon fly fishing museum.

We walked around the visitor center looking at the displays and putting together a puzzle.

Charles Atkins, a Craig Brook Superintendent, received this oak roll-top desk in 1903 as a hand-me-down from the US Bureau of Fisheries in Washington, DC.  It had been used by every US Fish Commissioner since 1871.

While most of the salmon at Green Lake are in large concrete pools outside, the fish at Craig Brook are in isolated rooms in the basement.

Atlantic salmon’s Latin name is Salmo salar.  Salar means “The Leaper.”

You might notice the netting over the tanks.  One of these adult salmon can jump eight feet out of the water to clear a waterfall, or leap out of its tank.

We walked along the nature trail for a little while.  It’s a beautiful area but we prefer the less visited Green Lake hatchery.

Mapping The Trail

We were asked by Oliver, the hatchery manager, if we could make a map of the hatchery trail.  This is the trail that we cleaned up at the beginning of this summer (See June 3, 2019 blog post Hiking Trails at the Hatchery).

We have our own GPS.  Even though it was our day off, it’s a beautiful area and the weather was nice and cool, we decided to get out and start hiking.

This trail starts where the road to the hatchery turns off Hwy. 180. 

Trailhead

The trail meanders through the heavily forested hatchery land toward Green Lake.

We saw a few deer on our walk along with lots of interesting mushrooms.

  

There are a few bridges.

Some are more rustic than others.

The large boulders are glacial erratics.

A glacial erratic is a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock native to the area in which it rests. "Erratics" take their name from the Latin word errare, and are carried by glacial ice, often over distances of hundreds of kilometres.

Right before we had walked a mile, the trail opens up.  If you’re ready for a snack you can find blueberries, blackberries and strawberries in this area.

It’s a nice trail but there are lots of roots and rocks so you really have to watch your step.  It looks like we need to get back up here with the blower!

There are a few trail markers but, I think, more are needed.

At one point in the trail you come across this ghost town sign.

Click on any picture to enlarge.

The area behind the sign is a large sinkhole where the cellar was.

At 1 1/3 miles the trail turns at Green Lake Dam.

Green Lake

Green Lake Dam

It then follows the road.

Past the water treatment plant.

Along side this penstock.  The penstock is owned by a small hydro plant next to the hatchery property.  (A penstock is an enclosed pipe that delivers water to hydro turbines).

Past the hatchery building.

Past the big top (where the outdoor fish tanks are).

Past the settling ponds.

While walking on the road, Graham Lake can be viewed through the trees.

We finished in about an hour.

Here is the map we produced. It turned out great.

Have You Ever Seen a Baby Lobster?

While driving around one day we passed the Downeast Institute building.  It sounded like a place we would like to visit and after some internet research we called them up to see if they provided tours.  We got a tour time for the very next day.

In 1987 clammers in this area became concerned about the decline in soft-shell clam harvest.  They teamed up with Dr. Brian Beal, a professor of marine ecology at the University of Maine to create the Beals Island Regional Shellfish Hatchery.  It was a facility where wild clams were spawned, clam larvae and juveniles were raised and seed clams were produced for planting on the depleted municipal flats.

In 2000 the name was changed to Downeast Institute for Applied Marine Research and Education (DEI).

After several expansions during the next 16 years, the final phase of the expansion was completed 2017.

$5.8 million expansion.

The first thing you see when you come through the front door is this large touch tank.

It was full of life.  We spent quite some time here before our tour and again after our tour.

I had never really thought about lobsters starting out as eggs and growing into the one-pounders you see in the grocery store.  

It takes 7 years for a baby lobster to reach legal harvesting size.

The touch tank was full of baby lobster.

The little dots on the bottom are baby lobsters.

There was a lot to see in the touch tank.

Pout fish.

Sea urchin

 Our very nice, young, tour guild came out to give the tour.  We were the only ones on the tour and she was very enthusiastic.

This facility raises several different kinds of shell fish.  They also grow their own food.  These are algae tanks.

Different shell fish prefer different kinds of algae.

American Oysters and European Oysters are raised here.

Hundreds of little oysters.

Razor clams start out extremely tiny!

There were thousands of soft shell clams.

These are larger clams.

This is an experiment with different kinds of substrate.  It's the material that clams grow on.

The ultimate goal of this new facility was to build a fully equipped marine research laboratory and expand the shellfish hatchery.

Apparently, baby lobsters are tiny cannibals and need to be separated.

One lobster per container.

Apart from the hatchery building is 2,000 feet of deep-water frontage and two working lobster pounds.

This is the easternmost marine research laboratory and education center in the US.

This is a great place to visit.  You do have to call ahead for a tour time.

We spent a little more time at the touch tank before leaving.

Starfish

Albino Lobster

Sand worm