Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 13, 1995 TAG: 9507130067
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``The best estimate we had is at least 750,000 fish were on the hatchery property, and they are down in Kerr Reservoir somewhere now, or beyond,'' said Mike Duval, fisheries biologist supervisor for the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
About 300,000 of the fish were scheduled for release in Smith Mountain Lake, where the species does not reproduce naturally.
``The water was four feet from covering up the hatchery building,'' said Duval. ``It picked up and dislodged some of the hatchery building itself. There was a lot of damage.''
The water swept across the hatchery's bottom-land rearing ponds where the stripers were nearing stocking size.
Virginia officials have been on the phone to other states searching for surplus fish, but it is late in the season to locate many of the Roanoke River strain, Duval said.
On June 30, 33,000 were stocked in Smith Mountain from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service McKinney Hatchery in North Carolina. Duval was waiting for another truckload to arrive Wednesday morning from McKinney, with a hoped-for cargo of 90,000 fish. But only 30,000 were on board when the truck reached Hales Ford Bridge. A second load of 110,000 arrived at Penhook Dock in the afternoon from a state hatchery in North Carolina.
Duval hopes to get additional fingerlings Friday, possibly from Kentucky, but filling the 300,000 goal doesn't look promising.
Stripers were stocked in other impoundments, including Claytor Lake and Lake Anna, prior to the flood.
Virginia Tech was scheduled to provide 40,000 fingerlings for Smith Mountain from its aquaculture station, but problems occurred there, too. The production rate was lower than expected, and about 10,000 fingerlings were lost Saturday night when a pump failed.
``We stocked maybe 10,000 [in Smith Mountain],'' said John Ney, of the Tech department of Fisheries and Wildlife. ``It's not near as many as I had wanted.''
The stockings were particularly important this year, because of a multi-year research project being conduced at Smith Mountain.
``We wanted to stock 300,000 to be constant with what we stocked last year,'' said Duval.
Tech provides phase II fingerlings, which are larger than those from other hatcheries. Research is being conducted to determine if releasing larger fish will result in greater survival.
Engineers arrived at the Brookneal Wednesday to assess damage and determine the cost of reparing the hatchery.
``Do you fix what you have or throw your hands up and build a state-of-the-art hatchery?,'' said Duval. ``Where does the money come from?''
The hatchery sits in a precarious position along the Roanoke River where Kerr Reservoir fish spawn, one of just a handful of reproducing landlocked striped bass populations in the world. It has been a common feeling that it was just a matter of time before a year class of fish would be wiped out by flooding.
About five years ago, Victor Thomas (D-Roanoke) introduced a bill in the General Assembly to establish a conservation stamp that would have provided capital for outdoor projects, including a new and safe striper hatchery. The measure failed.
``If we had gotten this bill through, that hatchery would have been built and this loss of fish would not have happened,'' he said.
Word of the lost at Brookneal and the problems at Tech came at a time when fishermen and businessmen at Smith Mountain had been campaigning for increased stockings. The Smith Mountain Lake Chamber of Commerce/Partnership has sent a resolution to Gov. George Allen asking for more fish.
Duval hopes the fingerlings from Brookneal made it to Kerr Lake, rather than washing up in someone's corn field.
``It looks like this year the natural spawn was largely a bust,'' he said. ``I think the fish were spawning too far downstream. When that happens, the year class probably is not going to be strong.''
by CNB