Runoff from Dorian may impact fish spawning in N.B. rivers

New Brunswick sport fishermen and the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance say that silt buildup in rivers that feed into the Petitcodiac River may impact fish spawning due to hurricane Dorian.

Avid New Brunswick fisherman Chris White says he is concerned, “whether or not our trout and other species that would be spawning out at this time of the year are going to have a successful pawn.”

White believes that much of the silt now in the river may be partially coming from a construction site about 20 kilometres away on Route 126.  A culvert had plugged during hurricane Dorian and the New Brunswick Department of Transpiration was forced to dig out the road to let flood waters flow down stream, White said.

“Given the fact that just the very amount of water that they were dealing with it certainly posed a problem for them,” said White.

But now he worries it will be a problem for the fish.

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Shane Boyd, a researcher with the Petitcodiac Watershed Alliance, was at Second North River on Monday testing the water’s turbidity and it didn’t fair well. He said that there was four times more silt build up in the water compared to what there would be after a typical heavy rainfall.

“Fish eggs that have been recently laid it can prevent them from getting enough oxygen,” said Boyd.

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He said that some of the runoff may indeed be coming from the construction site where the road remains closed on Monday. But he believes the silt buildup is primarily a result of runoff from Dorian’s historic heavy rains.

White hopes the silt eaves the river soon because he said that fish populations here were already struggling in the river.

“It can also have an ill effect on the amount of oxygen and such that they can be breathing in themselves”

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The New Brunswick Department of Transportation and Infrastructure stated in an email that it is working closely with the Department of Environment and local government to minimize the impacts to the environment as crews work to replace the culvert.