Students at SMCC are starting the fourth season of collecting eggs from anadromous Rainbow Smelt (Osmerus mordax) for use in a stock enhancement project in Sebago Lake. Landlocked smelt populations in the lake declined in the late 1990's reducing growth and survival of predatory fish such as the Landlocked Salmon (Salmo salar). The project is being done in cooperation with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the Sebago Lake Angler's Association.

The Angler's Association collects spawning smelt from coastal streams under permit from the Maine Department of Marine Resources. The project is restricted to 30 gallons of fish. Ripe smelt are transported to the SMCC campus where they are placed in ten foot diameter tanks. The smelt spawn in the tanks and the adhesive eggs attach to burlap laid on the bottom of the tanks. Spawned out fish are returned to Casco Bay. In 2005, 5,000,000 eggs were collected.

The eggs are held until they eye up and, after approval by a state pathologist, the burlaps with the eggs are transferred to the lake.

Recent hydroacoustic surveys by the Department of Inland Fish and Wildlife indicate that smelt populations in the lake are recovering but it is not clear whether the SMCC effort is contributing to the recovery. In order to assess the contribution of anadromous eggs to the population of smelt populations in the lake SMCC students are trying to develop a genetic mark to distinguish between freshwater and anadromous smelt.