| NH benefitted from a surplus of salmon at the Nashua Federal Fish hatchery.
1,381 adult atlantic salmon were given to the state, ranging from 1.5-15lbs.
Some of the fish were put in the Pemigewasset River watershed. The remainder
were put in lakes in NH including: Lake Francis (400 fish!), Winnipesaukee,
Winnisquam, and Newfound Lake.
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| An effort to introduce alewives to Newfound Lake will be undertaken this
spring. The NH F&G is planning on releasing several thousand alewives into
tributaries of Newfound Lake, with the intention of establishing a self-
sustaining population to provide an alternative forage to smelt, as the
efforts to improve the natural smelt populations have failed to produce
expected results.
I think this is a really good idea; the better the forage, the more gamefish
the lake will be able to sustain and the bigger the fish will be.
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| Each fall, the NH F&G nets coldwater species in order to determine population
health. Fisheries biologists are pleased with the results of last year's
netting program. The salmon and lakers were bigger, the rainbows had a healthy
population, salmon numbers were up and a record number of salmon eggs were
harvested.
Fisheries biologist Steve Perry attributed the increase in size and numbers
of salmon to reduced stocking levels of salmon, thus giving smaller salmon
a better chance to grow. The state stocked 17 million smelt in the lakes last
year to provide forage. That's alot of smelt!
A goal of 825,000 salmon eggs (an increase of 200,000 over the 1990 harvest)
was exceeded in 1991, with 981,850 eggs being harvested (the highest recorded
total.) Eggs are only taken from Squam Lake and Winnipesaukee.
Salmon eggs are used in the state's own stocking program and are also sent to
Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania and NY.
A record 758 salmon were netted in Squam lake, which Perry attributed to
the 18" minimum size (it is 15" on most other lakes).
The average size of salmon netted in Winnipesaukee was the largest since
1978; the average size of lake trout in Winni went up for the first time since
it began sliding in 1987. Rainbows in Squam Lake and Winnipesaukee have reached
average sizes of 19" and 3.25 lbs after two growing seasons.
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Daily Hampshire Gazette date unknown (approx. 24-Dec-1992)
"Digest of he region's news"
"Hundreds of salmon killed
"Sunderland - A cleaning agent is believed to be the cause for the deaths
of more than 200 Atlantic salmon at the Richard E. Cronin National Salmon
Station, officials say.
"The fish died two days before Christmas from what is believed to be
poisoning from muriatic acid. The deaths came 12 hours after the cleaning
agent was used on the station's wells, according to Bernard Novak, the
station's manager.
"The deaths hit 90 percent of the salmon station's domestic fish
population. The fish were part of an otherwise successful experiment, according
to Novak, to keep domestic fish outside during the winter at the salmon
station's eight pools, called raceways."
Martha V. Gold
Reproduced in full without permission.
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