Thanks for Your Support. Trout Unlimited Canada would like to thank Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP) and all of the amazing volunteers for making this year’s Alberta Fish Rescue possible. Without the support of the numerous volunteers who came out to help at each of the rescues, we would not have been able to conduct an effort of this scale or impact.
We would also like to thank Alberta Environment and Parks for their support in assisting with the decontamination of sampling equipment and field gear throughout the Fish Rescue, and the volunteers for their understanding regarding the limitations on working in the canal this year, in order to prevent contamination. This was a significant and time consuming effort but was necessary to minimize the risk of spreading Whirling Disease between waterbodies.
TUC would also like to thank Tim Hortons, for supplying coffee and hot chocolate to keep the volunteers warm during the cold snap and Lassonde Western Canada for supplying juice boxes for everyone to stay hydrated and sugared up.
A special thanks to our long-standing volunteers, some of whom have been helping with the annual Fish Rescue for more than 15 years. Thanks also to TransCanada Pipelines for choosing the 2017 Fish Rescue for their corporate volunteer workday.
CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS TUC received funding from Alberta Environment and Parks to conduct a fish rescue at the Carseland Bow River Headworks Canal, Lethbridge Northern Headworks Canal and Western Headworks Canal, and supported an additional effort at the Waterton-Belly and Women’s Coulee Diversions. During nine days of fieldwork and with the help of 190 volunteers, 17,096 fish were rescued from these 5 canals and released back into their home waters where they can complete their life cycle.
This year, sportfish made up 29.9% of the total fish rescued. This is higher than last year (19.3%). Mountain Whitefish were the most abundant sportfish captured, making up 16.5% of the total catch with 2824 captured in total. Brown Trout and Rainbow Trout comprised 5% and 6.3% of the catch, respectively.
Longnose Dace was the most abundant non-sportfish species by far representing 25.5% of the total catch this year with 4364 captured in total. The White Sucker and Longnose Sucker get an honorable mention as the next highest percentages of non-sport species caught, making up 23.7% and 12.3% of the catch, respectively.
With this year’s rescued fish taken into account, the running total of fish rescued since the project began in 1998 is now 898,091.
FEATURED FISH The largest fish caught during the 2017 Fish Rescue was an enormous Brown Trout measuring 677mm (34 inches)! The next largest fish was a Northern Pike, measuring 670mm. Also of note this year was three huge Bull Trout, Alberta’s Provincial Fish, which were rescued from the Lethbridge Northern Headworks Canal measuring 545, 553, and 620mm!
VOLUNTEER ABUNDANCE! Once again, there was phenomenal interest in volunteering for the Fish Rescue events!
Thank you for being a part of this year’s rescue effort and we hope to see you again next year!
For more information on becoming a member, or to financially support this or other TUC projects, please visit our website.
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