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But the 2020 work did get finished, with the society’s 100 staff delivering 5.63 million fish into 662 lakes across the province.
On Vancouver Island, the society stocked 58 lakes with 9,800 coastal cutthroat, 155,212 rainbow trout and 37,667 steelhead.
The Duncan hatchery was a key supplier of “catchable” fish. The rainbow trout are released into high-fishery, urban lake systems such as Elk, Langford, Prospect, Lookout and Durrance lakes in the Greater Victoria region.
Other hatcheries are located in Abbotsford, Summerland, Fort Steel and Clearwater. The society also operates a hatchery dedicated to sturgeon in Vanderhoof.
More than 311,000 steelhead smolts were also raised and released into four Island rivers and another six on the Lower Mainland.
The Duncan hatchery released 15,306 anadromous coastal cutthroat trout into the Oyster and Quinsam rivers on the Island.
The Freshwater Fisheries Society, which stocks the lakes for the provincial government, had initially expected a large financial hit as pandemic lockdowns took effect last spring.
The society funds its programs through the sale of freshwater angling licences. With severe restrictions early on in the pandemic, the society was bracing for losses. But when the province started encouraging locals to use parks and enjoy the outdoors, licence sales shot up.
During 2020, the society saw a 20 per cent increase in freshwater angling licences to more than 318,000. The biggest spike was in the 16-to-20 age group, which was up 64 per cent compared with 2019.
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