("…227") In the Seal Harbor Beach parking lot next to the Island Explorer bus stop, a wayside exhibit features an informational panel angled atop an oblong rock. The exhibit overlooks Stanley Brook as it flows through a large culvert under the roadway, coursing toward the ocean. Restrooms are also here, at the back of the parking lot. A road divides the lot from a harbor with small islands.
The exhibit's title, "Hidden Highway into Acadia," appears over an artist's rendering of Stanley Brook channeling through a culvert made of brick and stone. Arrows pointing in opposite directions indicate the path of travel of various fish, which include:
-Rainbow smelt, -Brook trout, -and Alewives.
Text reads: "This brook looks like a simple drainage of water into the ocean, but don't be fooled. Linking the ocean to Acadia's nearby lakes, it is a critical fish pathway. Every season this brook turns into a superhighway of activity." In the spring, the trout head into the Gulf of Maine to feed and grow. "As they rush out to sea, they pass thousands of adult rainbow smelt heading upstream to spawn in less dangerous waters. The smelt return to the ocean within hours, while the brook trout return after a few months."
A quote: "Side by side, they face upstream, driven forward by ancestral urges passed from one generation to the next." - Catherine Schmitt, Alewives: Feast of the Season, Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors, April-May 2008
Also shown are: -a great blue heron, with a long bill, curved neck, and slate-blue flight-feathers. -a spotted pickerel frog -a northern two-lined salamander, a slender animal with two black stripes running down its back. -and common whitetail dragonfly with a white body and dark bands on its transparent wings.
