c/o Twyla Dawn Doucet Miller, Facebook.
A representative for the Tusket River Dip Netters Association was disheartened to learn Monday that thousands of gaspereau died in the river.
George Emin says the Department of Fisheries and Oceans knew about the dead fish last week, and kept it a secret.
“We’ve been fighting for years to get fish stocks up, and now we’ve lost over 100,000 of them that never even had a chance to go up and spawn. That equals millions of juveniles that never had a chance. This was a big year,” says Emin.
He says about 50,000 fish per day have passed through the Tusket Falls ladder over the last couple of weeks, but it needs to have the capacity for about 200,000 fish, so backups won’t happen.
“I’d like to see Nova Scotia Power get that improved. There’s a ladder at the fish-house, that’s a salmon ladder and doesn’t work for gaspereau. But the main ladder really has to be taken care of because after that, there is nowhere for the fish to spawn. They have to get through that one, otherwise they have to drop back out into the salt water.”
Emin says gaspereau stocks were building back up this year after a shortened season, with one million passing through the ladder this year.
In a statement yesterday, DFO said the fish were stranded in an isolated pool next to the Nova Scotia Power Powerhouse, after entering during a high tide.
They say staff will continue work with Nova Scotia Power on fish passage on the Tusket River.
Emin says this is something that shouldn’t have happened, and DFO trying to keep it a secret was very upsetting.
He says he’s not sure why a screen was put in to try and keep fish from going into the pond, as the fish could swim into the pond through a stream, but couldn’t swim back out.
