DEC, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Lake Champlain Chapter of Trout Unlimited, State University of New York (SUNY) Plattsburgh, and the Plattsburgh Boat Basin and Oasis Marina, are kicking off the fifth and final year of the Atlantic salmon net pen-rearing program which was created to improve post-stocking survival of this species.

From April 4 – May 1, Atlantic salmon smolts are being held in six net pens at the Plattsburgh Boat Basin docks in an effort to improve survival and increase the likelihood of imprinting - returning back to the stocked water for spawning.

The project will compare two lots of approximately 26,000 salmon smolts to evaluate the effectiveness of net pen rearing as a stocking method. One lot of Atlantic salmon will be stocked into net pens in the Saranac River Estuary, pre-smolt, and held for approximately three weeks prior to release as smolts. (A smolt is the juvenile stage of the salmon life cycle where it begins a period of significant physiological changes to adapt.) A second lot will be directly stocked into the Saranac River Estuary at the same time as the net pen smolts are released, serving as a control. A comparison of returns between the two stocking methods will determine if pen rearing results in greater survival and homing than conventional, direct stocking.

Part of the experimental pen-rearing project involves using Parental Based Tagging (genetics) to determine a fish’s origin and ultimately, the contribution of pen-stocked fish to the river fishery. Any fry captured in annual surveys will have a sample collected where it can be determined whether it came from a stocked fish or wild fish. If the fry is from a stocked fish, then it will be known which stocking treatment they were from.

Learn More:

2024 Report: Experimental Pen-rearing of Atlantic Salmon in Lake Champlain 2021-2025 (PDF)
Landlocked Salmon Fishing in Lake Champlain’s Tributaries