Just one day before another massive fish kill struck in Prince Edward Island, and after almost eighty years of working closely with the P.E.I. government to keep fish populations healthy, the Cardigan Fish Hatchery announced on July 4th that it was closing its fish enhancement program.
Cardigan’s enhancement program was particularly important after fish kills, because it allowed fish with the same genetic makeup as those lost, to be reintroduced back into P.E.I. rivers and streams. The enhancement operation’s owner, Dover Fish Hatchery, had made very little money from the fish enhancement operation, and the regulations for the program were about to dramatically change.
Then the next night, July 5th, dozens of dead fish starting appearing in the Trout River. Officials still don’t know how many fish have been destroyed, or the cause, after P.E.I. has been hit with its second huge fish kill in as many years. Tens of thousands of fish were destroyed just last year, in a fish kill described as the worst kill in decades, affecting three rivers. And, the latest kill couldn’t have happened at a worse time, because the Trout River had been restocked with thousands of fish fry only last week.
