Maine Memory Network

Albert Plummer, superintendent at the Raymond Fish Hatchery, dangled a salmon from Sebago Lake in front of Duke the cat. This front page story, from November 6th, 1936 edition of the Portland Evening Express, explained how spawning salmon were being "swept" and "stripped" at the hatchery. On this day, 700 salmon were netted, or swept, from the hatchery pool, which was the final destination for the spawning fish. The eggs would then stripped from each of the 450 females, fertilized with a male, then taken to the hatchery for incubation. All the salmon would then be released back in the bay, on the opposite side from the stream where they had started their spawning journey.