Lake Ontario Meeting at the Salmon River Fish Hatchery - All Are Welcome and Encouraged to Attend 10-18-23

[Morgan-E]

There is a meeting scheduled for this Wednesday at 7PM at the Salmon River Fish Hatchery, hosted by ELOSTA.  All are welcome and encouraged to attend this public meeting to get information on the health of the fish coming into the hatchery, egg take, some insight into some of the research being conducted, etc...

It is in the fisheries best interest to have you attend and hear firsthand what is being done and the state of the fishery form those who work directly with it and to better it.

I look forward to seeing many of you there.

 

Phil Lucason

[Morgan-E]

Thank you to everyone who attended the meeting last night from up and down the lake and especially DEC personnel ,Tom, Scott, Pete, and the other fisheries tech who came (sorry that I did not get to meet you directly and get your name).  Tom and Scott shared a lot of information about the egg take, health of the fish, state of the hatchery, studies updates, cormorant control, and qualitative observations that they had made this Fall.

[Gill-T]

Phil, are you able to provide a summary of the meeting and specifically, was there any discussion about returning 2 year old salmon number trends and the reduced length of three year olds this year?  

[Morgan-E]

A detailed report will be in the ELOSTA newsletter written by Jared, but in summary:

they did not have the age breakdown at this time

• fish looked healthy
• eggs were large and healthy
• fish might be smaller due to the number of lamprey affecting the growth of the fish - especially the older fish - might answer your question
• coho at the hatchery were not as numerous as they normally are at this time, but were larger than what they have seen in the past
• brown trout were discussed in relation to the new genetics introduced from the oriskany creek and their behavior and the stocking timeline for the east and west end of the lake
• cormorants have exploded in numbers and the number culled should increase
• looks like there will be an increase in stocking numbers of around 10% with the baitfish data
• pinks have shown up in the lower river in numbers not seen before
• oswego has been on fire in terms of salmon
• the hatchery is getting a new well, has a new monitoring system, but needs a lot of work to get it to where it really needs to be
• Mike Connerton has the final creel census data compiled (he was not able to attend the meeting)
• the new genetics study seems to be going well and might lead to new information in the future about the egg take 
• the new genetics study might help determine further the contribution of natural reproduction to the lake under different environmental conditions and weather events

I am sure that I missed some points made as I do not have my notes with me.

 

[Earl28]

Great report Phil. I would add one item. There has been a company contacted to produce a comprehensive hatchery improvement plan. Great news

[Morgan-E]

This meeting happened this past Wednesday. See the post with the summary of what was discussed.