Juvenile bows

Briefly fished the Nechako river today. Caught a couple juvenile rainbows and a 2 lb pikeminnow. 

Nechako Sturgeon release

Today I was fortunate enough to get to release some juvenile sturgeon from the Vanderhoof sturgeon hatchery into the Nechako river. What a great event and learning experience. The younger grades from the school I teach at got to release a fish each, had a tour of the hatchery and learned all about the Nechako sturgeon. They even had a few 7ft + adults in holding tanks that they were going to get eggs from for future generations.
The sturgeon we released were the same ones I saw in an ealier tour in September and boy had they grown! They were about a foot and a half long and full of energy today as they embarked on a new and exciting journey into the unknown. There were hundreds and hundreds of them.
The students were all buzzing about it back at the school. They all had their pictures taken with the fish they released (which they also named) and the coolest part is they can look up the tag code in years to come to see if the hatchery has recaptured or encountered their fish in their studies/brood stock program.
Thought I would share a few pictures of the release down the chutes and into the river. Thanks again to all the volunteers who helped make this event a success.

Nechako River Sturgeon Hatchery

I visited the Nechako River sturgeon hatchery today and got to go on a tour of the facility.
The tour started with a little sterilizing. Everyone was asked to use hand sanitizer and to step into a shallow puddle to help sanitize their shoes or anything they may be tracking in. The person from the hatchery took us around the tanks and talked about the sturgeon in the river and the program they are running there.
They use river water in the hatchery (from the Nechako river) and are able to reuse the water at a rate of about 94%. Some is obviously lost to waste.
The sturgeon eggs and milt were collected from the river and some pitt tags were put in the mature fish they collected. The estimates of the population of sturgeon in the river are measured in the hundreds instead of the historic thousands. Apparently they are considered a distinct strain from the fraser river white sturgeon and are considered endangered. The reason for the low numbers is thought to be due to habitat loss because of lower water caused by a dam upstream. More silt in the water is also thought to be choking out the eggs. Apparently the river doesn't get a proper freshet due to the dam so it doesnt 'flush' out all the silt.
I did ask if the Nechako sturgeon ever venture down stream into the fraser and apparently they don't really do it which is part of the reason they are considered a seperate strain.

The hatchery collects and hatches the eggs. The young are reared and fed multiple times a day through an automatic feeder. The feed is a small pellet in which their nutrients are mixed in. They are grown to about a foot in length and then released into the river to do their thing.
In a seperate pool at the hatchery they have two female sturgeon. This two gals (Slimey an Khaleesi) were kept because their eggs were premature and not as formed as they were expected to be for their size (about 6' for Slimey and around 7' for Khaleesi). They will be holding onto them until May when they can hopefully harvest the eggs and release the two back into the river.

It was a very cool tour. I learned sturgeon have a spiral intestine and therefore when they defecate in the water it comes out in little coils. I also left my contact information for when they need volunteers for tagging and egg harvesting/fertilizing. Looking forward to going back again.