By Jim Brown
jim@peicanada.com

Last weekend’s gruesome discovery of hundreds of dead fish in two West Prince watersheds wasn’t exactly unexpected given the torrential rainfall that fell over a short period of time during fierce thunderstorms.

“In the watershed business when we have a freak storm like we did Friday night, where a lot of rain came down very fast we start checking for runoff,” said Lee Cowan, an official with Trout Unlimited, involved in the Trout River watershed.

She was one of 14 people helping to retrieve dead fish Monday morning and afternoon, some as large as five pounds, from the Leard’s Pond area, in Coleman. Dead fish were found over a six kilometre stretch of the watershed over the weekend and on Monday, she said.  Another fisk kill occurred in nearby Big Pierre Jacques River, also in the O’Leary area.

Ms Cowan, natural area manager for Trout Unlimited’s Prince County chapter, said an entire canoe was filled with trout when volunteers originally visited the Trout River watershed over the weekend.

But that’s only the tip of the iceberg, she said, adding many were likely consumed or hauled away by predators such as mink, raccoons, muskrats, osprey and blue herons.

Others were likely buried in sediment during a storm that caused rivers to “run red,” said Ms Cowan.

She added the number of fish collected (by Monday) on the Trout River watershed alone was approximately 425. Ms Cowan went on to say one biologist she talked to estimated that represented only about five per cent of the total number killed.

The sight of hundreds of rotting fish bobbing in the water was especially devastating considering O’Leary’s Trout River system ranked in the Top 10 of all Canadian destinations for sports fishing in a recent national competition and was No 1 for trout fishing.

“It makes this 10 times as devastating to us. Twenty years of work to maintain (the watershed) and the support has been wonderful (and now) to see this happening...”

The cause of the fish kills remains unknown. West Prince also recorded at least one confirmed fish kill last year. Before that there weren’t any serious incidents for several years.

The fish kills are being investigated by the Department of Energy, Forestry and the Environment. The department’s investigation enforcement staff and emergency response team were on site immediately after the incidents were reported.  Samples of soil, foliage, water and fish were collected for analysis.

Ms Cowan and Rosie MacFarlane, provincial freshwater fisheries biologist, said the loss of so many big fish will hurt the watersheds’ productivity since larger fish produce more eggs and milt.

A total of 1,400 eggs are produced in female trout for every pound they weigh, so a five pound brook trout would produce 7,000 eggs.

“It’s heartbreaking, we do so much to work on the brooks and to take care of the fish and then to lose them. That’s our brood stock. This is not just going to affect this year, it will affect the next 10 years,” said Ms Cowan.