AUGUSTA — The third opportunity to win a Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife (MDIFW) Keeper of the Maine Outdoors Experience is a fishy one.

The winner of the Keeper of the Maine Outdoors Maine Fisheries Experience contest, and a friend, will get a day in the field with a MDIFW biologist collecting fish samples and data, visiting a regional fish hatchery, or observing fish stocking.

MDIFW began the Keeper of the Maine Outdoors Experience contests in the spring to give the public the opportunity for a day-in-the-life experience with a wildlife biologist or game warden to learn how they protect Maine wildlife or serve in the Maine outdoors.

The first two contests had more than 10,000 entrants.

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife will select the contest winner from entries completed at KeeperoftheMaineOutdoors.com/giveaway.

Entrants must be 18 years-old to be eligible for the contest, and the Maine Fisheries experience entry deadline is Oct. 21 at 12:00 p.m.

Maine is widely known as a fishing destination and offers some truly unique, high quality fisheries for wild and stocked cold water species such as brook trout, landlocked Atlantic salmon, lake trout, arctic charr, and lake whitefish; and warm water species such as large and smallmouth bass.

MDIFW oversees management programs directed at the enhancement, preservation, and protection of Maine's inland freshwater fisheries. The Division strives to provide diverse, sustainable recreational and commercial public use opportunities for both wild and stocked fisheries, while conserving native fish and their habitat. Freshwater recreational fishing in Maine generates over $380 million annually to the State's economy.

Division management programs include research, resource assessment and monitoring; prevention and eradication of invasive fish; habitat restoration; stocking, public education and outreach; permitting and licensing; water access development, and promulgation of fishing regulations.

The Division stocks more than one million fish each year. Depending on the water, stocking is done to create new fishing opportunities, maintain existing fisheries where there is no wild reproduction, restore and reestablish native fisheries, and supplement existing fish reproduction. The Division also operates a fish health lab that ensures Maine's freshwater fisheries remain disease free.