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Pen Rearing Survey
Courtesy of Capt. Bob Songin, "Reel Excitement Charters"
March 2001
Is the Pen Rearing Project Working?
That's the big question...or are we just wasting our time taking care of these fish for the first 3 to 4 weeks of their post hatchery life and will it really make a difference in our catches? The answer is that yes, I believe it already has. Let's look at the first data available on the pen-rearing project.
This project began at two locations in 1998, Oak Orchard with salmon and steelhead and Oswego with steelhead only. Thanks to the foresight of the fisheries biologists in region 7 of the DEC, the steelhead in the Oswego portion of this project have been marked to identify them since the first stocking. As of this date, 20 of these steelhead have been returned for analysis.
In each year since this program began the 10,000 steelhead held in the pens at Oswego have been marked with coded wire tags and had their adipose fin only removed for quick identification. Along with the pen fish 10,000 steelhead that were directly stocked into the river have also been marked in the same fashion as the pen fish. The coded wire tags identifies which group a harvested fish belongs to. I know that a return of 20 fish may not sound very impressive considering that in the first 2 years of the project 40,000 total fish had been marked. Part of the problem in gathering more data is that on the lake most people do not look for the fin clip, or do not know about it at all. In the rivers most fishermen will not kill a fish no matter what the scientific need. So all things considered, 20 fish is a good beginning for the data needed to assess this program. So what are the results and what do the mean? Of the 20 fish that have been collected. 18 of them have been analyzed, and guess what...16 of them came from the pens! However, let's not jump to any premature conclusions, as you need 40 data points for a true conclusion to be drawn...but the pens are looking good for a positive influence on our fishing success. What the DEC needs is more data and the only way to get it is to sacrifice a steelhead's life now for the knowledge to help promote our fisheries success in the future.
Please check for an adipose fin clip on every steelhead you catch this season...if that fin is missing and no other fin is, it is one of the Oswego fish. If you should choose to harvest that fish, please cut the head off put it in a zip-lock bag and then freeze it. Call your regional DEC office and ask to talk to the Great Lakes fisheries biologist. Inform them you have a steelie head that is part of the Oswego program and you wish to have it picked up. They will make arrangements to retrieve the sample from you. If you do not hear from them in a reasonable time frame, please contact me and I will follow up with them to make sure your catch is included in the data. Your cooperation now will help guarantee a better fishery in the future.
March 2000
In 1998 the Oswego pen rearing group and the DEC began a study of the impact of pen rearing on steelhead stocked in the Oswego River. A number of fish were coded wire tagged and marked with an adipose only fin clip (the adipose fin is the small fin behind the dorsal). If anyone should harvest any of these fish on the lake during this summer season or from the river this fall, please remove the nose from behind the eyes, freeze it and save that portion of the head. Then please contact your nearest DEC office so they may recover the sample to be included in the study. With the sample please include location of catch and overall length.
In 1999 the DEC in co-operation with the with local pen rearing committees, committed to conduct a survey to evaluate the success of the current salmon pen rearing programs as compared to other stocking techniques. This program involves the marking by fin clip of 3 distinct groups of fish: 1) Pen raised 2) Caledonia raised 3) Altmar raised, stocked at a common sight. The sights picked were Oak Orchard in 1999 and 2001 and the Niagara River in 2000 and 2002. We are asking that as many anglers as possible participate in the survey. If you harvest or catch and release any of these marked fish please record date, location and fin clip and send that info to Capt. Bob Songin, 96 Vista Drive, Rochester NY, 14615 or email it to reelxite@rochester.rr.com. This survey will be completed in 2006. The target fish are Chinook (KING) Salmon only and the fin clips are either pectoral fin or the right pelvic.
Thank you all for you co-operation and support for the future of our fishery.
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