MARKING TROUT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 225, 21 August 1940, Page 2

MARKING TROUT

FISH FROM HOLDING POND. WORK AT ESPLANADE. An experiment to find out just how many artificially raised trout find their way ipto the angler’s basket is" at present being carried out, use being made of the pond at the Esplanade. During October of last year the Palmerston North branch of the Wellington Acclimatisation Society placed some 40,000 young fry from the society’s hatcheries at Masterton in the holding pond at the Esplanade, which had been made available by the courtesy of the city curator (Mr P. Black). The trout eggs had been obtained in- the first place from Otago. “The fish taken from the holding pond,” said Mr D. F. Hobbs, Government fr**ii-water’ fisheries biologist, yesterday, “are very good and although they are only yearlings some of them will come within the legal length in the coming season, which opens shorvly. In all my travels throughout New Zealand I have never seen such fine yearling fish.” The fish are brown trout and are being liberated in the rivers adjacent to the city. During the past 12 days Mr Hobbs and Mr T. Andrews, the ranger for the Wellington society, have been engaged in placing a small piece of silver wire, through the skin on the back of each yearling trout, just in front of the dorsal fin. On this wire is held a small glass head. , In later years if the experiment is continued a different bead will be used, and when the trout are caught the angler will know in vvliat year that particular fish was liberated from the pond. The men complete approximately 400 fish daily. As the fish are marked they arc conveyed by lorry and released in various parts of the Manawatu River and its tributaries.

In conversation with a “Manawatu Standard” reporter, Mr Hobbs said that this was the first such experiment carried out with heads and silver wire in New Zealand, although in Canterbury salmon have had certain unnecessary fins clipped off during certain seasons; but this is _ not always successful, for if the fin is not taken off right to the bone it grows again. No impediment is caused the fish by the bead attachment. The fish have been looked after during their stay in the pond by Messrs A. Dale and H. Ware, two members of the Palmerston North branch, who have given tireless attention to their charges. ■ The work of the local society will he of little value if anglers do not do their part during the forthcoming season, it is stated. All the sportsman has to do is to work out the proportion of tagged fish caught as against unmarked fish and report to the society. From these figures the society can obtain some very valuable information.