Here's a [url=http://www.ringwoodhatchery.ca/]A Brief Introduction[/url] before we actually see the report..

Location is Credit river, streetville per OFAH

Kudos to a great bunch of conservationists!!!

Hey cdslec, may be you should join them somehow;-)

cdslec, for salmon egg collection events, you better check out the following fishing websites...

www.spoonpullers.com (Lake Ontario)

http://www.greybruceoutdoors.com (Lake Huron)

You'd need to register first, then log-on to view..

But I believe it's almost over now http://www.ofah.org/News/index.cfm?ID=3&A=GetDoc&DID=372, the OCAA members were likely parttaking the final rounds over the last long weekend :-)....next yr may be, meanwhile fish hard...LOL

 They are doing it at Sarnia http://www.bluewateranglers.com/

At 7:30 in the morning, the OCAA’s volunteers (Raymond, Richard, Rita, Lee Yuk Fai, Simon, Victor, Ben and Lisa) gathered at Raymond’s house.  We then headed to the Ringwood Fish Culture Station, arriving there at 7:45, where our hosts, volunteers from Metro East Anglers, were waiting.  They introduced themselves as Andy Rubaszek, Bruce Burt and Glenn Anderson.  After the initial introductions, we left for <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Mississauga, arriving at the Credit River at 9:00.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

We then signed in at the front gate.  After signing in, we drove to the side of the river, where everyone was getting ready – were putting on chest waders (the water was too deep for just hip waders), rubberized gloves that extended past the shoulder, and getting large, wooden nets.  Before going into the water, however, Glenn, who had a very large box strapped to his back, gave us some safety rules.

Since we were going to be electrofishing at 300 Volts, we had to be extremely careful.  300 Volts would be enough to stop a human heart, so he emphasized that if anyone got water inside their waders (either a leak, or from falling in), to let him know as soon as possible, so he could turn off the electricity.

With those safety rules out of the way, we headed downstream, taking care not to spook any of the salmon in the river along the way.  Once downstream, we created a line across the river, with Glenn in the middle.  Once Glenn saw some fish, he would point his wand (a wooden stick with a metal hoop on the end) into the water and turn on the electricity.  The salmon would be stunned and float to the surface, where they could be netted.

Initially, we were going after Chinook salmon females that were “loose” – the eggs would come out with a slight squeeze on the upper belly.  We had several people with no nets dedicated to pointing out females, and to check the females to see if they were ready.  The process went like this: shock, net any females, and bring them to the checkers to make sure they were ready.  If the fish was considered ready, it was brought to holding pens upstream.  As we made our way upstream, we started to pick out large males to net, as well.  The males were also checked with a slight squeeze.

While the fish were being netted, the crew on the shore was busy processing the fish that were put into the pens.  Eggs and milt (sperm) were collected from the salmon, placed into coolers, and the spent fish were released back into the river.

Once the collection was done, we headed back to the Ringwood Fish Culture Station, where the Metro East Anglers volunteers had already mixed the eggs and sperm from half of the total amount collected from the day – each container of eggs received half the sperm from one salmon, and half from another in order to increase the chances of survival.  This mixture was left for 15 minutes, and then was gently rinsed in spring water from the nearby spring (no chlorine, as it would kill the young).  After rinsing, the eggs were placed into an Ovadine solution for 30 minutes to destroy any fungus or bacteria on the surface of the eggs.  After 30 minutes, the solution was gradually drained by running spring water for another 30 minutes.  This was to harden the eggs.

The eggs were then removed from the Ovadine solution and placed into large troughs with running water.  Some of the eggs had turned white, or had started to develop white patches, and these eggs needed to be removed, as they were infertile and would not develop.  The rest of the eggs were counted and put into incubation trays.  The counting method was simple; the eggs were put into a measuring cup of sorts, and 3.2 litres of eggs was equivalent to 8,000 eggs.

The incubation trays have water at 8 degrees Celsius flowing through them at a rate of 18 litres per minute, as this was found to be the optimal amount of water for survival of the eggs.  The eggs will stay there for 2 months, after which they will be transported into holding tanks and fed commercial fish food from the West coast.  Once the fry get to a size of 5 grams, they are released to sites specified by MNR throughout Ontario from Belleville in the East to St. Catherines in the West.  The quota for this year is 540,000 fry.