It has been 5 weeks of extreme weather since the arrival of all the juvenile chinook salmon at various Ontario pen sites. We had Colin Lake from the MNRF out to all 3 MEA pen sites this past Saturday to help with the gathering of the average weights. As expected the growth rates have not been very high this season with all the cold weather / water we have had. All three sites came in at almost exactly the same average weight of 5g which is getting close to double their weight upon arrival, and fry look very hardy.
Judging on the fry activity and some of the natural food we saw them eating this past weekend, and ideal water temps for activity, we expect they'll put on another 2g just this week, leading up to release.
Volunteers are planning to release the Whitby Fry on Saturday evening and we'll gather down at the Whitby Marina around 5:30 pm to get started. We'd appreciate some help from our volunteers so we can once again get average weights at release, and we also want to invite the community to come out and join us to witness the release as well.
There will be a fair bit to do to ready the pens for towing to the pier head, and we have two trips to make with 4 pens this year and some loading, pressure washing and equipment removal to complete afterwards. It is truly an amazing sight to watch the pen fry leave en masse from the pens out on the pierhead.
Please dress appropriately for the weather. Hope to see you on Saturday at Whitby Marina, meet up at Pier 8 / Marina building… many hands make light work
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