KELOWNA – Two mountain lakes west of Kelowna are being closed to fishing effective Saturday because of an invasive fish species.
Yellow perch have showed up in Windy and Little Windy lakes which are at the headwaters of the Nicola River drainage.
It’s believed the fish were deliberately put into the lakes by someone wanting to create a perch fishery.
In a news release, the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources said “The fish are very adaptive, have few native predators and reproduce quickly. Once perch are introduced into a lake, they out-compete native species for food and habitat.”
Biologists are investigating the lakes and outlet streams to try to determine the extent of the perch population and remove them from the Nicola and Thompson watersheds where they could create environmental havoc with salmon and trout populations.
A female perch is extremely fertile, laying up to 15,000 eggs at a time while the average trout deposits just 110 eggs.
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.