Freshwater Aquaculture Research Program in Action

By Renée Mactaggart, Strategic Media Relations Manager, Central & Arctic Region

Levels of most wild stocks have reached a plateau or declined. Aquaculture, the culture of fish, shellfish and marine plants, is responding to a global demand for fresh, nutritious and affordable fish and seafood.

Finfish farming, freshwater or marine, is mostly performed using large, mesh cages suspended in deep water. Concerns have been raised about the potential negative environmental effects of net-cage fish farming, and research is on-going to measure the nature and scale of these effects.

At the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA) near Kenora, Ontario, Fisheries and Oceans Canada is conducting comprehensive scientific research to understand the effects of freshwater net-cage aquaculture. The results will be used to develop scientifically based guidelines for regulation of the freshwater aquaculture industry and better understand how fish farms influence the aquatic ecosystems they inhabit. The ELA, which comprises approximately 50 lakes, offers a natural "real world" laboratory setting. It is a unique facility that has gained an international reputation as one of Canada’s most innovative and successful commitments to freshwater research.

Departmental researchers have established a small-scale fish farm in one of the ELA lakes. Since 2003, some 10,000 rainbow trout fingerlings have been placed in a cage each spring and fed commercially-produced feed pellets for five to six months. Each fall, when the trout reach a mature weight of about one kilogram, they are removed from the cage and harvested, as they would be in actual fish farm operations. The lake ecosystem is closely monitored to detect any fish farm-related changes with respect to the lake and to the native species including lake trout. Fish behaviour is observed using sophisticated electronic systems. The final results of this study can be expected in two years time.

DFO researchers at the Freshwater Institute in Winnipeg are making significant contributions to the research, development and understanding of the freshwater aquaculture industry to determine if it can grow in an environmentally responsible manner that benefits all Canadians.

In support of DFO’s freshwater aquaculture study, thousands of rainbow trout fingerlings are transferred from a delivery truck to coolers for transport via all terrain vehicles and boat to the cage in Lake 375, in the Experimental Lakes Area, on May 29, 2006.

ELA fish farm in operation:

Article reproduced in part from the Experimental Lakes Area Newsletter - Volume XIII(1), dated May 2006.

Last Updated : 2006-06-28

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