FALMOUTH — Maine Audubon, Trout Unlimited and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife are seeking volunteer anglers to participate in a trout survey this season.

Anglers are needed to survey remote ponds and coastal streams in Maine, which are believed to be home to 97 percent of the wild brook trout habitats in the eastern U.S.

To date, 197 volunteer anglers have successfully surveyed 258 remote Maine ponds for which no data was previously available. State biologists have conducted official surveys on 45 ponds that volunteers identified as brook trout ponds

This year, the project is expanding to include stream surveys along the Maine coast. Officials say little is known about the distribution and life history of sea-run brook trout in Maine.