Big hope for little fish
Lack of brood stock makes restocking necessary
An electro-fishing survey carried out recently in a West Prince stream that suffered a fish kill last year turned up mainly trout from a re-stocking operation.
Danny Murphy, co-ordinator of the Roseville-Miminegash Watersheds Inc., said most of the fish surveyed in the Little Miminegash River were similar in size, and appeared to be consistent with the growth last year’s stocked fish would have achieved.
Missing from the survey were any young of year trout, which Murphy suggests further confirms his belief that the August 2016 fish kill in the Little Miminegash River wiped out the stream’s brood stock.
That’s why re-stocking operations, such as the one repeated on Tuesday, is so necessary to the recovery of the stream’s fish population, he maintains.
Close to 4,000 brook trout from the Abegweit Biodiversity Enhancement Hatchery in Scotchfort were trucked to Roseville on Tuesday and transferred to barrels and then to buckets before being released at intervals into the stream.
About 1,000 brook trout were also released into the Campbellton Brook along the Coughlin Road. That stream suffered a fish kill in July of this year. That kill may have been smaller in that only 67 dead fish were recovered compared to close to 1,000 dead fish recovered from the stream and along the banks of the Little Miminegash River in 2016.
“Early last year, this brook was full of big trout,” said Murphy as he helped carry buckets of three-to-four-inch trout to the river.
The size was defined as “zero plus” trout that were hatched in Scotchfort in February.
Murphy said no big trout were seen this year.
He welcomed the restocking operations carried out by the P.E.I. Fish and Wildlife Division, confident that will help rebuild the fishery.
The Little Miminegash River has been closed to fishing since last year’s fish kill, and Murphy predicts it will remain closed for two more years.
He said the stream in Campbellton, which the Roseville Miminegash Watersheds also manages, was closed to fishing following the July 23 discovery of dead fish.
Enhancement operations proceeded as usual this year.