Calgary's annual fish rescue saves over 2,000 fish per year

A biologist at Calgary's annual fish rescue says they've saved over 2,000 fish per year at theWesternIrrigationDistrictheadworks canal.

Lesley Peterson, a biologist with Trout Unlimited Canada in Calgary, says every year the organization works with the provincial government to rescue stranded fish inirrigationcanals in southern Alberta.

According to their website, Trout Unlimited Canada is a registered Canadian not-for-profit organization whose mission is to conserve, protect, and restore Canada's freshwater ecosystems and cold water resources.

"In the fall when the canals are shut down and the water drains for a little, we come in with a bunch of volunteers and our staff and we rescue as many fish as we can," she said.

She says so far their team hasrescued over 900,000 fish from canals since 1998.

"During the day, we use electrofishing to capture fish from the upper 200 metres of the canal After processing, fish are held in an aerated tank until the end of the day when they are released back into the Bow River,"Peterson said in a release.

Peterson says mostirrigationcanals in southern Alberta have no screen or exclusion mechanism to prevent fish from getting into the canals, and once they do they can't get back to their rivers without human intervention.

"They don't come in here on their own free will and they're not choosing to come into the canal," she said.

"Since we started doing this,actually a couple of canals have been screened and we definitely consider that a big success."

She says that during the nine-day event, Trout Unlimited Canada spends time in the fieldrescuingthefish,as well as collecting information and raisingawareness of fish losttoirrigationcanals.

"Everything gets counted. We count all the minnows and suckers and trout So part of the goal of the project is, we have an opportunity to handle a lot of fish and so we have can contribute the data to provincial fisherydatabases," said Peterson.

They also spend time on educating their hundreds of volunteers about Alberta fish, as well as provide them an opportunity to learn how to identify, measure and handle the fish.

"We know that we're not rescuing all the fish from the canalwe just can't do it. But part of the other goal is to educate people about the issue and to provide that opportunity for people to learn a little bit about Alberta's fish species," she said.