Ontario Boosting Its Fish Populations

December 17, 2024

$75 million investment to support recreational fishing and conservation efforts

December 16, 2024

NORTH BAY — The Ontario government is investing over $75 million to update Ontario’s fish hatchery program to provide better fishing opportunities across the province.

Infrastructure upgrades are planned for three critical fish culture stations to increase the production of key fish species and support fish stocking efforts. These upgrades include:

  • Construction of a new building for raising walleye at the Blue Jay Creek Fish Culture Station on Manitoulin Island to increase the production of walleye by as much as 600 per cent annually.
  • Improvements to the North Bay Fish Culture Station to enable stocking of over 555,000 high-demand fish, including brook trout, lake trout and rainbow trout.
  • Upgrades to the Hill’s Lake Fish Culture Station in Englehart to increase its capacity to raise and stock over 530,000 popular fish including splake and aurora trout.

“These investments are great news for fishing enthusiasts across Ontario. We are modernizing Ontario’s world-class fish culture and stocking program making sure we are best positioned to meet current and future needs,” said Graydon Smith, Minister of Natural Resources. “These improvements will contribute to the sustainable management of fish populations and add to the economic and social benefits of fishing in Ontario.”

Planned improvements include replacing aging infrastructure with modern equipment, increasing capacity for growing larger fish to enhance the number of fish available to anglers, and making operations more efficient and cost effective in part by reducing energy consumption.

Fish are raised in fish culture stations prior to being released into lakes to support fishing and conservation. Fish stocking improves recreational fishing by providing more fish such as walleye, salmon and trout in easy to access waterbodies, including urban angling locations.

Quick Facts

  • Each year the Ministry of Natural Resources stocks approximately eight million fish weighing a combined 200 metric tons into more than 1,200 public waterbodies.
  • At peak times, there are 20 million fish within the ministry’s nine fish culture stations.
  • Over 1.5 million recreational anglers have an economic impact of $1.6 billion per year in Ontario.
  • With more than 250,000 lakes and 490,000 kilometres of rivers, Ontario has vast aquatic resources that provide anglers with a wide range of fishing opportunities.
  • This investment is part of the government’s plan to build Ontario by expanding and renewing critical infrastructure, with investments of more than $191 billion over the next 10 years.