Fish are stocked at Shannon Lake Regional Park with classes from Shannon Lake Elementary School and Rose Valley Elementary School in attendance, Thursday, April 30, 2015.
Image Credit: Contributed
May 05, 2015 - 9:29 AM
THOMPSON-OKANAGAN - Moving more than 20,000 young fish from a hatchery into a lake isn't easy, unless you have the right tools for the job.
On Sunday, May 3, Go Fish B.C., a nonprofit program organized by the Freshwater Fisheries Society of Canada, released a behind-the-scenes video of the restocking of rainbow trout in Paul Lake near Kamloops.
The Society is a private, non-profit organization that supports sport fishing, offers a range of conservation services to protect wild fish, and promotes the importance of sport fishing and fish conservation to the public.
Stacy Webb, the communications director for Freshwater Fisheries Society, says the fish in the video were transported in a hatchery truck with oxygenated water before being moved to their new home through a gravity-fed pump.
The society stocks roughly 800 lakes in the province every year and already this spring more than 580,000 young fish — rainbow trout and eastern brook trout — have been stocked in the Thompson-Nicola and Okanagan regions.
The Hall Road pond in Mission Creek Regional Park and Shannon Lake Regional Park in the Central Okanagan have both benefitted from the program. Each Saturday at the Hall Road pond volunteers from the Kelowna and District Fish and Game Club will provide equipment and expert fishing guidance while members of the Peachland Sportsmen’s Association will be on hand at the south end of Shannon Lake in Shannon Lake Regional Park.
Bruce Smith with the Regional District Central Okanagan says the programs are hugely popular and thousands of youngsters from across the region have learned skills they will use the rest of their lives.
"Thanks to our dedicated volunteers with the Kelowna Fish and Game Club, the Peachland Sportsmen’s Association and Freshwater Fisheries Society, a new generation has had the opportunity to experience this lifelong sport," Smith says.
For more information on their upcoming activities, visit the Go Fish B.C. Facebook page.
This is what it looks like when we put 21,000 rainbow trout into a lake! (Paul Lake)
Posted by Go Fish BC on Sunday, May 3, 2015
To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2015