2018 LOTSA Pen Rearing Update

Great News!  Today we received notice that our fish will be delivered April 9th around 1:00 pm.   So make plans to come out and help put our fish in the pens.  We will meet at the Town Of Newfane Marina at 12:30 to get ready for the delivery.

Don’t forget that the pens will be assembled on Saturday April 7th at 9:30 at the Town of Newfane Marina.  Dress for the conditions and bring side cutters to trim zip ties.

On Saturday April 7th, LOTSA will be assembling the net pens for our 67,100 chinook salmon and 3,500 steelhead.  We will be meeting at the Town of Newfane Marina in Olcott NY at 9:30am.  Please dress warm and bring side cutters to clip zip ties.  Come out and help a great cause, make and meet new friends.  There will be donuts and coffee provided.

2018 LOTSA Pen Rearing Project

The LOTSA pen rearing project is located in the Town of Newfane Marina on Eighteen Mile creek.  We receive from the NY DEC  67,100 Chinook salmon and 3,500 steelhead every spring.  The idea is to receive them prior to smoltification so that the baby fish will imprint to the local water and ideally return to spawn in those waters three to four years later.  Studies have also shown that pen reared fish have a 2 to 1 survival rate over direct stocked salmon, and we have seen evidence of this in fall runs.  The fish usually arrive in mid April depending on the DEC’s schedule.  This is a great time to come down and watch the operation.  Once received, they are fed on a continuous basis via automatic feeders that the club purchased in 2017.  The town marina employees load the feeders every morning which provides 12 hours of slow continuous feed for the fish.  We try to hold the fish for approximately three weeks to allow for imprinting and maximum possible growth, however water temperature, dissolved oxygen levels and actual fish growth play a major role in when the fish are released.  The fish are weighed when they are received, once per week while they are being held and just before they are released so that we can monitor and record their growth.  We try to release the fish in the evening just before sunset, the thought process is they will have a better chance of dispersing and have less predation from birds and other prey fish in the dark conditions.  Once the fish are released the pens have to be removed from the water, pressure washed, inspected and hung to dry for use the next year.

In 2017 the Fairhaven Pen Project conducted a study with the cooperation of NYDEC trying a new food for one of their Chinook pens.  The end result was 17% higher growth rate over the pen that was fed the regular state supplied food.  This year the NYDEC has authorized the use of a new Bio-Oregon food for all pen sites.  We are excited to feed this new food to our fish and see these results for our selves.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!  We need as much help as possible to prepare the nets/pens for the fish.  This year, we will be meeting April 7^th at 9:30am to prepare the pens and get them in the water.  We will also need help the day that the fish arrive, this date will is yet to be determined.  The day that the pens are pulled from the water is also a day that we will need a lot of help, this date is yet to be determined as well.

Announcements will be made on this site as well as our FaceBook page.  We would welcome and appreciate as much help as possible.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank the Town of Newfane Marina Staff and Wes Walker from the Slippery Sinker in Olcott for all of the help and time that they put in to this project to make it work.