April 5, 2015 — Beginning this week, nearly half a million trout will move from Massachusetts fish hatcheries into the wild.
“It’s been somewhat delayed given the ice and snow conditions that still prevail in some areas,” said Ken Simmons, chief of hatcheries for the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. “Some years we have the ice out early and by the first week of March we’re going full bore.”
Simmons oversees the state’s trout stocking program, a coordinated effort to raise and release hundreds of thousands of fish each year into approximately 500 rivers, streams, lakes and ponds throughout Massachusetts.
The Bay State began stocking its waterways with fish in the 1870s.
“Back then, the real reason was the waters were so depleted and damaged by the initial phases of the Industrial Revolution,” Simmons said. “Over time it evolved to a program of recreational enhancement.”
Although providing a recreational outlet for sport anglers may now be the primary purpose of the program, fish stocking also helps protect the ecosystem from overfishing, the hatchery chief said.
“Recreational angling could have negative consequences if we didn’t supplement what Mother Nature could produce,” he said.
Read the full story from The New Bedford Standard-Times