Genesee Charter Boat Associaton Pen Rearing

Genesee Charter Boat Association, Inc.
Rochester, New York

"Lake Ontario's premier sport fishing association."

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Pen Rearing
Pen rearing was first implemented on Lake Ontario in 1999. In 2000 the Genesee Charter Boat Association, in conjunction with the New York State DEC, began a second pen rearing site located right in our back yard.... the Genesee River. Each year we raise 85,000 Chinook (king) salmon and 10,000 steelhead trout.

Pen rearing basics: Trout and salmon, by nature return to their "native" streams to reproduce. Other than Atlantic Salmon and Lake Trout all of the other species of trout and salmon, in Lake Ontario, are stocked by hatcheries. Pen rearing projects allow hatchery produced fish to "smolt" in other locations and get the "scent" of the tributaries that they
are pen raised in. In turn these fish will return in a few years as adults to these locations
to spawn.

Involvement is 100% volunteer and a group effort by all. Aluminum pens are fully lined with special nets and then manually placed into the flowing waters of the Genesee River.
For the next 3 weeks volunteers feed the fish, clean the pens, check their condition, and monitor water temperatures under the guidance of the DEC. Once the water temperature warms and "our babies" have grown, we then release them into the lake.

Funding for this project, other than the fish, is totally based on contributions. Nets need attention every year, and pens need maintenance, so contributions are always
encouraged. To Donate to the Genesee Pen Rearing project please contact Mickey
McDonald, our treasurer, at 671-5168.

Key Benefits

1) Direct involvement from community volunteers with the fishery and New York
State DEC

2) Pen Rearing Sites have benefited return ratios as high as 7:1 over direct stocked salmonoids

3)Higher survival rates of juvenile fish

4)OUTSTANDING FISHING!

Pen Rearing 2008

Pen Rearing is completed for the 2008 season.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
To all those who volunteered their time to make this years project a success.

2008 Pen Photos

Fish Release

Net Results

Pen Rearing 2008

Pen Rearing is completed for the 2008 season.

Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
To all those who volunteered their time to make this years project a success.

Key Benefits

1) Direct involvement from community volunteers with the fishery and New York State DEC

1) Direct involvement from community volunteers with the fishery and New York
State DEC