Outdoornews
January 6, 2021
As we look at 2020 in the rear-view mirror, it is time to start looking forward and hope for brighter days. No, we have not gotten rid of COVID-19, but distribution of the vaccine is underway and plans moving forward for things like our Great Lakes fisheries is headed in a positive direction.
For Lake Ontario, the Salmon River Fish Hatchery staff completed all the egg collections for Chinook and Coho salmon last fall. The final numbers were 1.6 million Chinook salmon eggs and 860,000 Coho salmon eggs, to be stocked in Lake Ontario tributaries. The Chinook eggs are hatched and will be stocked this spring (translating to roughly 850,000 fingerlings for New York waters, about 550,000 for pens), while the Coho eggs are held in the hatchery for a year and stocked in the spring of 2022 as yearlings. The Coho fall fingerling stocking program will be discontinued moving forward. Previously there were 235,000 fall fingerlings and 90,000 spring yearlings being stocked. While stockings will no longer be 325,000 fish, the reduction in numbers could still be better overall because they will all be yearlings and survival rates will be much better.