Feature Article July 8, 2004
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COFA fish HatcheryAs a grey day dawned on July 5, 20 members of the Conservationists of Frontenac Addington (COFA) began arriving at the Brown house on Hwy. 41 between Kaladar and Northbrook.
Behind the house, there are two man-made ponds which were put in four years ago by COFA in order to establish a fingerling Pickerel operation. About 20 COFA members arrived in rain boots and work gear, ready to net the 6,500 1.5 inch Pickerel fingerlings they have been nurturing in the ponds all spring.
By about 9:30 am, the first pond had been drained to the point where the net held by two COFA members reached the bottom of the pond and could be dragged from one end of the pond to the other. Then the net was pulled together and a larger group gathered round to pull the heavily laden net to shore. Amid the mud and weeds in the net, shiny Pickerel fingerlings were flopping about.
Working quickly, many hands got to work plucking fingerlings from the mud and tossing them into buckets of clean water. The muddy water was filtered through screens to get all the fingerlings out.
The mud, which was something that had not been seen to this degree in the five years the fish pond has been in place, was a real threat to the fingerlings, because it clogged their gills, making it impossible for them to filter oxygen from the water.
As quickly as possible the fingerlings were placed in oxygenated tanks for transport. After washing down all the tubs, screens, and pails, the net was dragged through the first pond again, and then again, until only a few pickerel fingerlings were left behind.
Then COFA members turned their attention to the second pond, which they had been draining while gathering the pickerel from the first one. By early in the afternoon, about 6,500 pickerel fingerlings were released in Mississagagon Lake.
We are a privately funded group; we dont receive any government support, other than a small grant that the government gives us each year to upgrade our hatchery at Bishop Lake, says COFA president Ron Perthick.
COFA does co-ordinate its fish stocking operations with the Ministry of Natural Resources, and Perthick says the MNR officials from Bancroft and Kingston have been very good to work with over the years, even if we dont agree with some of the policies that come down from Toronto.
COFA built a fish hatchery nine years ago, using about 1/3 of a 160-year-old barn located on the Bishop Lake Outdoor Centre property.
First we had to strip away four levels of flooring, right down to the joists, Perthick recalls, before putting in a completely sterile hatchery. It cost us about $12,000 to $15,000, and many, many hours of COFA members time.
The hatchery is completely washed down and sterilised each spring, and run for a week before COFA members head down to Northport on the Bay of Quinte. Commercial fishermen in Northport provide them, and the workers from the MNR-operated White Lake fish hatchery, with male and female adult Pickerel.
We take the females and males and milk the fish to fertilise the eggs, Perthick said, and then we have to stir the eggs after they have been spawned for about two hours to prevent them from sticking. Then its into coolers and up to our hatchery.
At the hatchery, the fertilised eggs are put in jars that have water constantly running through them. About 25 days later the eggs start eyeing up, the first stage in their development towards adult fish, and for three days the hatchery has to be watched around the clock, as the eggs develop into what is called the swim up fry stage, when they are about the size of a mosquito larva.
Before COFA put in the ponds at Ron Browns house, they used to take the swim up fry and release them directly into several lakes. This form of stocking was done for 80 years, but the survival rate that comes from raising the swim up fry to the summer fingerling stage through the use of ponds is much higher. This led COFA to develop their ponds, and has also subsequently led the Ministry of Natural Resources to insist that all fish hatcheries develop ponds.
Of the 1.7 million swim up fry that come out of the COFA hatchery at Bishop Lake, only a small portion are needed for their two ponds. Some of the extra fry are sent to a pond operation in Brampton, and are then brought back to the area once they reach the fingerling stage. The rest are released into three lakes that have been identified as potential Pickerel Lakes.
Although COFA members have now cleaned up their hatchery for the season and the ponds can be left for another year, their work is not finished. COFA is in the second year of a three-year shoal spawning bed development project on Mississagagon lake.
There is only one small creek that feeds the Mississagagon, and ideally Pickerel spawning beds are located at feeder creeks, so we have been developing shoal spawning beds at other locations on the lake, Perthick said.
Last year, COFA members put in 140 tons of rock, and they are planning to put a similar amount at different spots on the lake this year and next year to provide a location for Pickerel spawning to take place on the lake. Hopefully a stable native Pickerel population will take hold on Mississagagon.
COFA members have been taking and taking for years, and we are motivated by a desire to begin putting back, Perthick said in describing why the organization goes to such lengths to enhance the habitat for fish and other wildlife. You couldnt get a better group of volunteers than we have. There are always lots of hands available to get things done.
