• Jackson, Casey Alannah Leialoha
  University of Maine Graduate School
  

The Rapid River, located in western Maine, has been renowned as a premier native brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) fishery in the eastern United States since European settlement in the late 1800s. Since this time the Rapid River fishery has declined due to numerous anthropogenic effects. Increasing concerns about management. and preservation of this brook trout population prompted my research of the history of the fishery in the Rangeley Lakes region (Chapter 1), the effects that the introduction of smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) may have on the Rapid River brook trout population (Chapter 2), and finally, the effects that heavy fishing pressure may have on the Rapid River brook trout fishery (Chapter 3).