Brook Trout Stocking: An Annotated Bibliography and Literature Review with an Emphasis on Ontario Waters S. J. Kerr Fisheries Section Fish and Wildlife Branch April 2000 This publication should be cited as follows: Kerr, S. J. 2000. Brook trout stocking: An annotated bibliography and literature review with an emphasis on Ontario waters. Fish and Wildlife Branch, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Peterborough, Ontario. Printed in Ontario, Canada (0.3 k P. R. 00 05 31) MNR ISBN Copies of this publication are available from: Fish and Wildlife Branch Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources P. O. Box 7000 300 Water Street, Peterborough Ontario. K9J 8M5 Cette publication spécialisée n’est disponible qu’en anglais Cover drawing by Ruth E. Grant, Brockville, Ontario. Preface This bibliography and literature review is the first in a set of reference documents developed in conjunction with a review of fish stocking policies and guidelines in the Province of Ontario. It has been prepared to summarize information pertaining to the current state of knowledge regarding brook trout stocking in a form which can readily be utilized by field staff and stocking proponents. Material cited in this bibliography includes material published in scientific journals, magazines and periodicals as well as “gray” literature such as file reports from Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) field offices. Unpublished literature was obtained by soliciting information (i.e., unpublished data and file reports) from field biologists from across Ontario. Most published information was obtained from a literature search from the MNR corporate library in Peterborough. Twenty-one major fisheries journals were reviewed as part of this exercise. These included Aquaculture (1972-1998), California Fish and Game (1917-1999), Copeia (1913-1999), Environmental Biology of Fishes (1976-1999), Fishery Bulletin (1963-1999), Fisheries Management (1975-1984), Journal of Freshwater Ecology (1981-1999), New York Fish and Game Journal (1954-1985), North American Journal of Fisheries Management (1981-1999 inclusive), Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada/Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (1950-1999 inclusive), Progressive Fish Culturist (1940-1999), and Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (1929-1999 inclusive). Searches were also made of other publications including Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Transactions of the Annual North American Fish and Wildlife Conference, Transactions of the Annual Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference, United States Department of the Interior Fisheries Technical Papers, FAO Fisheries Technical Papers and Circulars, and reports published under the Canadian Technical Report Series of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Some material was obtained by a search on the Fish and Fisheries Worldwide database (1971-present) via the Internet. Information from over 370 sources has been assembled. Abstracts from published papers have been included wherever possible. In cases where abstracts were not available, an attempt has been made to extract material from the document to provide a synopsis of the findings. In some cases, I was unable to obtain a copy of the document but have simply included the citation. i Table of Contents Preface......................................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ....................................................................................................................... ii History of Brook Trout Stocking in Ontario .............................................................................. 1 Synthesis of Selected Literature Annotated Bibliography Acknowledgements Subject Key Subject Index Glossary ii History of Brook Trout Stocking in Ontario Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) has traditionally been one of the most popular sport fish among anglers and one of the most commonly stocked species in the Province of Ontario. With the exception of the Great Lakes, brook trout are stocked throughout Ontario. Brook trout was among the first fish species to be artificially propagated in Ontario (as early as 1857). Samuel Wilmot’s Newcastle hatchery is usually credited as being the first station to rear a number of different salmonids including brook trout. There were other early brook trout culture efforts in the private sector. It is known that, by 1870, a facility at Galt, Ontario, carried a brood stock of approximately 10,000 brook trout as well as fry and fingerlings (MacCrimmon et al. 1974). Other private facilities, situated at Alton, Hillsburg and Redickville, also reared between 60-70,000 brook trout annually. Records of early stocking activities from these facilities are poorly documented however. In 1900, one of the first expressed interests in brook trout was documented through a request to take 10,000 brook trout from local streams in the Toronto area to be deposited in private ponds to provide angling for a price of 40 cents per pound of fish caught. This request was denied. One of the earliest recorded brook trout stocking efforts involved a transfer of fish. In 1902, an application was received from the Board of Trade of Rat Portage, Ontario, for brook trout to be placed in waters in vicinity of that town. Approximately 100 brook trout were subsequently captured from the Nipigon River and transported west by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). Several fish died during transport but the remainder, averaging approximately 2 pounds in weight, were apparently stocked in good condition. By 1912, reports of the Ontario Fish and Game Commission lamented the disappearance of the forest from logging activities in the Ottawa River basin and the Haliburton-Hastings area which impaired brook trout habitat and necessitated the implementation of stocking programs. Between 1918-1920, the first major plantings (> 200,000 fish) of brook trout were recorded from the Mount Pleasant and, to a lesser extent, the Normandale provincial fish hatcheries. Most of the waters stocked were streams in southwestern Ontario. Early stocking efforts largely involved the release of fry but, by the1930s, more emphasis was being placed on the culture and distribution of fingerling and larger brook trout. Brook trout stocking peaked in the 1930s when 7.2 million fish were released in 1933 (see Appendix 1 and Figure 1). Since 1970, brook trout stocking programs in the public waters of Ontario have ranged between one and two million fish annually. Over the past century, almost 205 million brook trout have been stocked in Ontario waters. There are currently three strains of brook trout in the provincial fish culture system (OMNR 1996b). There are the Hills Lake domestic strain (HLHL), the Lake Nipigon wild strain (LN) and a hybrid of the two (LNHL). The Hills Lake strain has resulted from approximately 20 generations of domestication at the Hill’s Lake Fish Culture Station near Englehart, Ontario. It is believed to have originated in Pennsylvania. The Nipigon strain originates from a native population from Lake Nipigon, Ontario. Several brook trout variants have been cultured and stocked over the years. Albino brook trout yearlings were raised and stocked in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967. Captive breeding programs for _____________________________________________________________________________________ 1 History of Brook Trout Stocking in Ontario __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Aurora trout commenced in 1958 (Snucins and Gunn 1994). The first plantings of Aurora trout occurred in 1964 (582 fry and 682 yearlings). The following year, 4,000 fingerlings Aurora trout were stocked. These fish culture efforts are believed to have saved the Aurora trout from extinction. Currently, several thousand Aurora trout are reared and stocked annually in an attempt to rehabilitate and restore naturally self-sustaining populations. Figure 1. Brook trout stocking (all life stages combined) in Ontario waters, 1900-1999. In 1999, a total of 1,709,024 brook trout were planted in Ontario waters (Table 1). This represents almost 20% of all the fish stocked in the province. _____________________________________________________________________________________ 2 History of Brook Trout Stocking in Ontario __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Table 1. Brook trout stocking in Ontario waters by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources in 1999. Region MNR District Number fish stocked Southcentral Algonquin Park 10,749 Bancroft 154,652 Kemptville 11,000 Midhurst 29,264 Pembroke 97,245 Peterborough 11,106 Northeastern Chapleau 30,500 Cochrane 13,000 Hearst 190,500 Kirkland Lake 363,885 North Bay 73,705 Sault Ste. Marie 44,842 Sudbury 64,848 Timmins 250,500 Wawa 81,471 Northwestern Dryden 22,300 Fort Frances 7,000 Kenora 2,800 Nipigon 38,657 Sioux Lookout 8,000 Thunder Bay 203,000 Total 1,709,024 Source: Fish Culture Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Peterborough. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3 Synthesis of Selected Literature This section will attempt to summarize and highlight several selected stocking related topics under the following categories: 1. Survival of stocked